Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana
ABSTRACT African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are megaherbivores of the African savannas requiring extensive ranges that can provide critical resources for their survival and reproduction at different spatiotemporal scales. We studied seasonal differences in home range sizes and daily distance to...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70758 |
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| author | Anastacia A. Makati Anna Songhurst Emily Bennitt Gaseitsiwe S. Masunga Graham McCulloch Amanda Stronza Tiroyaone A. Matsika Frank D. Eckardt |
| author_facet | Anastacia A. Makati Anna Songhurst Emily Bennitt Gaseitsiwe S. Masunga Graham McCulloch Amanda Stronza Tiroyaone A. Matsika Frank D. Eckardt |
| author_sort | Anastacia A. Makati |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are megaherbivores of the African savannas requiring extensive ranges that can provide critical resources for their survival and reproduction at different spatiotemporal scales. We studied seasonal differences in home range sizes and daily distance to the nearest surface water sources by five male and 10 female African elephants in the eastern Okavango Panhandle in northern Botswana between 2014 and 2017. We hypothesized that (i) elephant home ranges would be larger in the wet than in the dry season (because critical resources tend to be less localized in the wet than in the dry season), (ii) the daily distance of the elephants to the nearest ephemeral surface water sources would be larger in the dry than in the wet season because many of the ephemeral water sources would be dry in the dry season and elephants would start moving towards permanent water sources such as rivers, and lastly (iii) that the differences in elephant home ranges and daily distance to water would differ between sexes. Our results showed that elephant home ranges were larger in the wet than in the dry season, and that they differed between sexes with female elephants having smaller home ranges in the late wet season. The mean daily distance to the nearest ephemeral surface water sources was larger in the dry than in the wet season. There was an inverse relationship between elephants' daily distance to permanent surface water and to ephemeral water sources. The findings indicate the need for large conservation areas and functional connectivity between landscapes to enable the highly mobile savanna elephants to access critical seasonal resources such as water and forage in semi‐arid savannas. Such landscapes are critical, especially in the face of climate change, when high air temperatures and droughts may exacerbate forage and water shortage and intensify human–elephant interactions in surrounding agroecosystems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1240f11bfbb5459b886f0f1ccf5061ef |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj-art-1240f11bfbb5459b886f0f1ccf5061ef2025-01-29T05:08:41ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582025-01-01151n/an/a10.1002/ece3.70758Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern BotswanaAnastacia A. Makati0Anna Songhurst1Emily Bennitt2Gaseitsiwe S. Masunga3Graham McCulloch4Amanda Stronza5Tiroyaone A. Matsika6Frank D. Eckardt7Okavango Research Institute University of Botswana Maun BotswanaEcoexist Trust Maun BotswanaOkavango Research Institute University of Botswana Maun BotswanaOkavango Research Institute University of Botswana Maun BotswanaEcoexist Trust Maun BotswanaEcoexist Trust Maun BotswanaBotswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Gaborone BotswanaEnvironmental and Geographical Science University of Cape Town Rondebosch South AfricaABSTRACT African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are megaherbivores of the African savannas requiring extensive ranges that can provide critical resources for their survival and reproduction at different spatiotemporal scales. We studied seasonal differences in home range sizes and daily distance to the nearest surface water sources by five male and 10 female African elephants in the eastern Okavango Panhandle in northern Botswana between 2014 and 2017. We hypothesized that (i) elephant home ranges would be larger in the wet than in the dry season (because critical resources tend to be less localized in the wet than in the dry season), (ii) the daily distance of the elephants to the nearest ephemeral surface water sources would be larger in the dry than in the wet season because many of the ephemeral water sources would be dry in the dry season and elephants would start moving towards permanent water sources such as rivers, and lastly (iii) that the differences in elephant home ranges and daily distance to water would differ between sexes. Our results showed that elephant home ranges were larger in the wet than in the dry season, and that they differed between sexes with female elephants having smaller home ranges in the late wet season. The mean daily distance to the nearest ephemeral surface water sources was larger in the dry than in the wet season. There was an inverse relationship between elephants' daily distance to permanent surface water and to ephemeral water sources. The findings indicate the need for large conservation areas and functional connectivity between landscapes to enable the highly mobile savanna elephants to access critical seasonal resources such as water and forage in semi‐arid savannas. Such landscapes are critical, especially in the face of climate change, when high air temperatures and droughts may exacerbate forage and water shortage and intensify human–elephant interactions in surrounding agroecosystems.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70758climate variabilityforagekernel densityland useNDVIresource availability |
| spellingShingle | Anastacia A. Makati Anna Songhurst Emily Bennitt Gaseitsiwe S. Masunga Graham McCulloch Amanda Stronza Tiroyaone A. Matsika Frank D. Eckardt Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana Ecology and Evolution climate variability forage kernel density land use NDVI resource availability |
| title | Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana |
| title_full | Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana |
| title_fullStr | Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana |
| title_short | Seasonal Variation in Home Range Sizes and Daily Distance to Ephemeral Surface Water for African Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Eastern Okavango Panhandle, Northern Botswana |
| title_sort | seasonal variation in home range sizes and daily distance to ephemeral surface water for african savannah elephant loxodonta africana in eastern okavango panhandle northern botswana |
| topic | climate variability forage kernel density land use NDVI resource availability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70758 |
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