Tag: elephant

Research summaries

Grazers and fire management: conservation from a ‘systems’ perspective

How do grazing herbivores like hippos affect the influence of fire? Following a recently published article, Izak Smit demonstrates the need for interdependence between herbivore and fire management. Grazing animals and fire are in direct competition – both of them consume grass. Previous continental-scale studies suggest that grazing animals have the competitive advantage in drier and more nutritious landscapes, whilst fires dominate in wetter and … Continue reading Grazers and fire management: conservation from a ‘systems’ perspective

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Journal news, Research summaries

Issue 55:6

Here are some of the highlights from our last issue of 2018 and our last issue to be published in print. You can also read issue 55:6 online here. Disentangling natural vs anthropogenic influences on predation: reducing impacts on sensitive prey Our latest Editor’s Choice article Cover stories: Cheetah chase Take a look at this selection of images telling the story behind our latest cover … Continue reading Issue 55:6

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Infographic, Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Is fencing the solution to human-elephant conflict?

Is fencing just a short-term solution for preventing human-wildlife conflict? In their recently published paper, Osipova et al. model the longer-term effects fencing can have on the vital movements of wildlife populations, using the African elephant as an example. See their work presented in this infographic: Read the full article, Fencing solves human‐wildlife conflict locally but shifts problems elsewhere: A case study using functional connectivity … Continue reading Is fencing the solution to human-elephant conflict?

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Research summaries

How are these elephants doing 35 years after being reintroduced as under-5s? The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park story

In 1981, after nearly 100 years of absence, the first elephants were reintroduced to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi region of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Remarkably, all 200 elephants reintroduced over the next 15 years were juveniles (around 2-5 years of age). The new paper by Tim Kuiper, and Dave and Heleen Druce, Demography and social dynamics of an African elephant population 35 years after reintroduction as juveniles, shows how this unusual … Continue reading How are these elephants doing 35 years after being reintroduced as under-5s? The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park story

Journal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
Monitoring and methods, Research summaries

Where should we build wildlife crossings?

With wildlife crossing locations difficult to pinpoint, how do we know where to build crossing structures? Associate Editor, Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez explains how Bastille-Rousseau et al.’s new method and recent article, Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures using GPS telemetry help answer this question. There are over 40 million km of roads in the world (100 times the distance from the moon to Earth), with many millions … Continue reading Where should we build wildlife crossings?

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Research summaries

Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures for African elephants in Northern Kenya

Wildlife crossing structures are considered critical for animal movement, but how  do you choose where best to build them? Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau presents tools for planning crossing structures and the recently published article, Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures using GPS telemetry. Linear infrastructure development, including transportation and economic corridors, is considered to have outsized ecological impacts relative to their small physical footprints. In sub-Saharan Africa, … Continue reading Optimizing the positioning of wildlife crossing structures for African elephants in Northern Kenya

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Research summaries

African forest elephants are really slow breeders

In this post, Associate Editor Johan du Toit discusses new Policy Direction “Slow intrinsic growth rate in forest elephants indicates recovery from poaching will require decades” by Andrea Turkalo, Peter Wrege, and George Wittemyer, published today. Intrinsic population growth is related to body mass The rate at which a population grows (r) under ideal conditions with no resource limitation, disease, or predation, is governed by … Continue reading African forest elephants are really slow breeders

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