An assessment of the large mammal component of the proposed wildlife sanctuary site in Maasai Kuku Group Ranch near Amboseli, Kenya
Many pastoral communities that share rangelands with wildlife are looking for direct benefits from wildlife resources found on their land. In the group ranches around Amboseli National Park, the Maasai community is hoping that wildlife-based ecotourism ventures will earn them direct revenue. However, for ecotourism, prerequisites such as tourist attractions (especially large mammals), community willingness […]
Automated species identification for camera trapping in the Iona Skeleton Coast Trans-Frontier Conservation Area
The Iona Skeleton Coast Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA), straddling the border between Angola and Namibia, has suffered through decades of civil war and poaching. While this history has been detrimental to the community of large mammals in the TFCA, data collected on the mammal populations are insufficient to enable effective management. Survey methods such as […]
Towards understanding large mammal population declines in Africa’s protected areas: A West-Central African perspective
A raft of recent studies has highlighted a major decline in large mammal populations in many of Africa’s protected areas. A recent continent-wide assessment represented a major step forward also in terms of quantifying the decline on a regional basis, but fell short in its sampling and analysis. In this paper, a way out of […]
From savannah to farmland: effects of land-use on mammal communities in the Tarangire–Manyara ecosystem, Tanzania
Land-use change is considered a major driver of biodiversity loss. In the western part of the Tarangire–Manyara ecosystem, we assessed large mammal species richness along a land-use gradient (national park, uninhabited pastoral area and settled pastoral- and farmland). We found the highest species richness in the national park and in the pastoral area and lowest […]
Effects of body size on the diurnal activity budgets of African browsing ruminants
We compared the diurnal activity budgets of four syntopic species of African browsing ruminant that differ widely in body size. These were concurrently studied through all phases of the seasonal cycle, in the same area, using the same methods. We tested five predictions from the literature on how body size is expected to influence the […]
Scaling of mammalian long bones: small and large mammals compared
Long bones from a taxonomically diverse assemblage of extant terrestrial mammals, spanning more than three orders of magnitude in body mass, have been measured in order to evaluate earlier models proposed for limb allometry as a means of physically coping with increased body size in large species. Linear regression models are unable to explain long […]
The extinct, giant giraffid Sivatherium giganteum: skeletal reconstruction and body mass estimation
Sivatherium giganteum is an extinct giraffid from the Plio–Pleistocene boundary of the Himalayan foothills. To date, there has been no rigorous skeletal reconstruction of this unusual mammal. Historical and contemporary accounts anecdotally state that Sivatherium rivalled the African elephant in terms of its body mass, but this statement has never been tested. Here, we present […]
Three–way interactions between Acacia, large mammalian herbivores and bruchid beetles ‐ a review
Large mammalian herbivores are both predators and dispersers of Acacia seeds. While some of the seeds are destroyed during passage through the herbivore’s digestive tract, others are defecated unharmed. Ingestion by large herbivores facilitates germination by scarification of the seed coat. The extent of the influence of herbivores on seed dispersal and germination depends on […]
Consequences of different forms of conservation for large mammals in Tanzania: preliminary analyses
We examined the effects of protection from human activities and effects of tourist hunting on densities of 21 large mammal species in Tanzania. Aerial censuses revealed that mammal biomass per km2 was highest in National Parks. Densities of nine ungulate species were significantly higher in National Parks and Game Reserves than in areas that permitted […]
The relative importance of large mammal species for tourism in Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Marketing for tourism in Kenya mostly revolves around ‘‘the big five’’ charismatic large mammals. However, it is not known if these are in fact the species tourists seek and prefer to see, or what other species are important when the ‘‘big five’’ are absent. This study investigated the large mammal interests of tourists in Amboseli […]