Interspecific interference competition at the resource patch scale: do large herbivores spatially avoid elephants while accessing water?

1. Animals may anticipate and try to avoid, at some costs, physical encounters with other competitors. This may ultimately impact their foraging distribution and intake rates. Such cryptic interference competition is difficult to measure in the field, and extremely little is known at the interspecific level. 2. We tested the hypothesis that smaller species avoid […]

Habitat heterogeneity and social factors drive behavioral plasticity in giraffe herd-size dynamics

Behavioral plasticity, or the mechanism by which an organism can adjust its behavior in response to exogenous change, has been highlighted as a potential buffer against extinction risk. Giraffes (Giraffa spp.) are gregarious, long-lived, highly mobile megaherbivores with a large brain size, characteristics that have been associated with high levels of behavioral plasticity. However, while […]

Megaherbivores and cattle alter edge effects around ecosystem hotspots in an African savanna

Wild mammalian herbivores and cattle are fundamental drivers of African savanna ecosystems and have strong impacts on woody vegetation. However, few experimental studies have investigated the separate and combined influences of different large herbivores on spatial vegetation patterning. In East Africa, temporary cattle corrals (bomas) develop after abandonment into productive, treeless ‘glades’ that attract both […]

Modeling the dynamics of migrations for large herbivore populations in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya

The spread of human activity, settlement and land fragmentation threatens the migrations of large migratory ungulates in Africa. Modelling the migrations gives conservationists a tool for building scenarios of the threats and containment options. We propose a simple spatially explicit mathematical model of ungulate migrations based on the seasonal distribution of vegetation quantity and quality […]

The diet of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) on a wildlife ranch in the mosaic thicket of the southern Cape, South Africa

We studied the diet composition and preference of giraffe in mosaic thicket. Diet composition was determined by direct observations throughout the year. The Jacobs index was used to calculate dietary preference indices. Although the recorded diet consisted of 20 browse species, 17 were tree/shrubs, and only two, Acacia karroo and the invasive alien Acacia cyclops, […]

Demography of giraffe in the fragmented Tarangire Ecosystem

Documenting whether variation in demographic parameters such as births, deaths, and movement exists, and how temporal and spatial environmental variability influences demography, is critical to understanding and affecting changes in animal populations. Natural populations often exhibit variation in demographic parameters, and while the examination of temporal variation has long been a central theme in population […]

Comparison of Two Diet Analysis Techniques for a Browsing Megaherbivore

Diet assessment of herbivores provides insight into trophic relationships, the potential for competition, and the influences herbivores may have on an ecosystem (Bookhout 1996). Thus, the determination of their food requirements is imperative prior to the implementation of any management decisions, which must be based on reliable data (Bookhout 1996). Direct observations and fecal analysis […]