Human footprint and protected areas shape elephant range across AfricaJake
Wall, George Wittemyer, Brian Klinkenberg, Fiona Maisels, Jelle Ferwerda &
Iain Douglas-HamiltonCurrent BiologyApril 1, 2021Summary
Over the last two millennia, and at an accelerating pace, the African
elephant (Loxodonta spp. Lin.) has been threatened by human activities
across its range. We investigate the correlates of elephant home range
sizes across diverse biomes. Annual and 16-day elliptical time density home
ranges were calculated by using GPS tracking data collected from 229
African savannah and forest elephants (L. africana and L. cyclotis,
respectively) between 1998 and 2013 at 19 sites representing bushveld,
savannah, Sahel, and forest biomes. Our analysis considered the
relationship between home range area and sex, species, vegetation
productivity, tree cover, surface temperature, rainfall, water, slope,
aggregate human influence, and protected area use. Irrespective of these
environmental conditions, long-term annual ranges were overwhelmingly
affected by human influence and protected area use. Only over shorter,
16-day periods did environmental factors, particularly water availability
and vegetation productivity, become important in explaining space use. Our
work highlights the degree to which the human footprint and existing
protected areas now constrain the distribution of the world’s largest
terrestrial mammal. A habitat suitability model, created by evaluating
every square kilometer of Africa, predicts that 18,169,219 km2 would be
suitable as elephant habitat—62% of the continent. The current elephant
distribution covers just 17% of this potential range of which 57.4% falls
outside protected areas. To stem the continued extirpation and to secure
the elephants’ future, effective and expanded protected areas and improved
capacity for coexistence across unprotected range are essential.
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