Tag: megaherbivores

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

Journal of Applied Ecology1 Comment
Restoration, The Applied Ecologist community

Trophic rewilding: restoring top-down food web processes to promote self-managing ecosystems

Continuing our series on rewilding, Jens-Christian Svenning from the Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Aarhus University, focuses in on trophic rewilding. Here he considers the foundations and open-ended nature of this approach, and explains why there is still plenty of room for more research in this area. There is rapidly increasing interest in rewilding as an alternative to more human-controlled approaches to … Continue reading Trophic rewilding: restoring top-down food web processes to promote self-managing ecosystems

Journal of Applied Ecology9 Comments
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