TY - JOUR
T1 - Human footprint and protected areas shape elephant range across Africa
AU - Wall, Jake
AU - Wittemyer, George
AU - Klinkenberg, Brian
AU - LeMay, Valerie
AU - Blake, Stephen
AU - Strindberg, Samantha
AU - Henley, Michelle
AU - Vollrath, Fritz
AU - Maisels, Fiona
AU - Ferwerda, J.
AU - Douglas-Hamilton, Iain
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the European Commission ( EC-MTKD-CT-2005-029893 —SEARS, Spatial Economics and Remote Sensing of Elephant Resources) for funding a key meeting, and the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, for hosting it. The research was also supported financially by a Canadian National Science and Research Council (NSERC) PGSD3 (348450) award. The data were contributed by numerous colleagues researching elephant movements across Africa. We thank the range state governments, research authorities, and wildlife departments from Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Mali, Kenya, and South Africa. We also thank the African Elephant Conservation Fund of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); the United States Agency for International Development Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (USAID CARPE); the Especes Phares Project; the Central African Protected Areas Network of the European Union; Operation Loango; the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Save the Elephants; the World Wide Fund For Nature-US; the Society for Conservation and Development; the Columbus Zoo; the Mara Elephant Project; the Safaricom Foundation; the Darwin Initiative; the WILD Foundation; Paul van Vlissingen; Caroline Tisdall; Susannah Rouse; the Sidekick Foundation; University of South Africa (UNISA), and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa; the scientists who collaborated; and the guardians of national parks and national reserves across Africa.
Funding Information:
The African Elephant Conservation Fund of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); United States Agency for International Development Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (US-AID CARPE); the Especes Phares Project and the Central African Protected Areas Network of the European Union; Operation Loango; Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Save the Elephants; World Wide Fund For NatureWWF-US; the Society for Conservation and Development, and the Columbus Zoo.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/6/7
Y1 - 2021/6/7
N2 - 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.1–7 We investigate the correlates of elephant home range sizes across diverse biomes. Annual and 16-day elliptical time density home ranges8 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.9,10 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.
AB - 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.1–7 We investigate the correlates of elephant home range sizes across diverse biomes. Annual and 16-day elliptical time density home ranges8 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.9,10 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.
KW - fragmentation
KW - GPS tracking
KW - home range
KW - human footprint
KW - Loxodonta africana
KW - Loxodonta cyclotis
KW - range loss
KW - remote sensing
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.042
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.042
M3 - Article
C2 - 33798431
AN - SCOPUS:85104990648
SN - 0960-9822
VL - 31
SP - 2437
EP - 2445
JO - Current biology
JF - Current biology
IS - 11
ER -
