Woody vegetation change in response to browsing in Ithala Game Reserve, South Africa
The impact of elephant and other browsers may be magnified when they are restricted within small, fenced reserves. These reserves are becoming commonplace in southern Africa. The composition and structure of the woody vegetation of a portion of the 30 000 ha Ithala Game Reserve, South Africa, was monitored annually from 1992 to 2000. Woody […]
Ramifying effects of the risk of predation on African multi-predator, multiprey large-mammal assemblages and the conservation implications
Impacts of predators on prey populations are incurred not only through mortality inflicted, but also from how the risk of mortality affects the behaviour, spatial distribution and resource access of potential prey species. This risk is governed by exposure to predators and vulnerability following encounters. Behavioural responses to reduce risks have ramifying consequences for habitat […]
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 […]