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Integrating herbivore assemblages and woody plant cover in an African savanna to reveal how herbivores respond to ecosystem management

African savannas are experiencing anthropogenically-induced stressors that are accelerating the increase of woody vegetation cover. To combat this, land managers frequently implement large-scale clearing of trees, which can have a cascading influence on mammalian herbivores. Studies rarely focus on how differences in woody cover influence the herbivore assemblage, making it difficult to assess how aggressive measures, or the lack of management, to counteract increasing woody cover affect the local composition and biodiversity of herbivores. We address this knowledge gap by

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Effect of Elephants and Other Ungulates on the Vegetation in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania

This study assessed the effects of elephants and other ungulates on the vegetation in Northern Part of Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) in Tanzania. This study is peculiar since it assessed the effects of elephants and other ungulates on the vegetation in Northern Part of SENAPA which is missing in the literature. The objectives were to determine plant species composition in the Northern Part of SENAPA, examine the effects of elephants and other ungulates on vegetation in the Northern Part of

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The influence of feeding opportunities of six zoohoused Giraffa camelopardalis rothschild

Previous studies on captive giraffes have shown that an increase in foraging opportunities leads to reduced abnormal behaviour. This study evaluates the nocturnal behaviours of six captive giraffes, housed in Aalborg Zoo (N: 57.04°, E: 9.90°). The herd consists of one male giraffe (age 8), one male calf (age 1 ½), two female giraffe (age 7; 20) and two female calves (age 8 months; 2 years). The observations lasted eight nights and compared two observation periods (October and November) with

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Not just the Big Five: African ecotourists prefer parks brimming with bird diversity

Ecotourism helps sustain protected areas (PAs) that in turn conserve Africa’s declining fauna. Identifying ecotourist preferences and which species and landscapes benefit from ecotourism could therefore support African biodiversity conservation efforts. Due to historic associations with trophy hunting and subsequent ecotourism marketing efforts, ecotourist preferences have been thought to traditionally center around the ‘Big Five’: elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. But these preferences may be evolving. Here, we ask two questions, one about the drivers and one about the

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Environmental DNA as a management tool for tracking artificial waterhole use in savanna ecosystems

Game parks are the last preserve of many large mammals, and in savanna ecosystems, management of surface waters poses a conservation challenge. In arid and semi-arid regions, water can be a scarce resource during dry seasons and drought. Artificial waterholes are common in parks and reserves across Africa, but can alter mammal community composition by favoring drought intolerant species, with consequences for disease dynamics, and population viability of drought-tolerant species. Analysis of waterborne environmental DNA (eDNA) is increasingly used to

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Inferred giraffe deaths from lightning strikes

In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (1859) wrote that: ‘there must be much fortuitous destruction, which can have little or no influence on the course of natural selection’. His reasoning was that some organisms could be ‘the best adapted to their conditions… [but]…destroyed by accidental causes,’ such that ‘natural selection will be powerless’ in these instances. Stochastic factors, such as extreme weather events, can cause fatalities to individuals otherwise well-adapted to their environment. Specific atmospheric conditions create weather patterns

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Oral Stereotypies in Captive Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) Associated with Food Intake

Ungulates are the most prevalent mammalian stereotypers (Bergeron et al., 2006). Oral stereotypies are the most common abnormal behavior of zoo-housed giraffes, suggesting that this species develops stereotypic tongue movements (Bashaw et al., 2001). Wild giraffes must use their tongues to remove and consume tree leaves (Baxter & Plowman, 2001); therefore, the saliva production may be high due to the oral stimulation and time involved in selective feeding patterns (Kearney, 2005). Feeding captive giraffes is a challenge. Their diet consists

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Fibre Size Frequency In The Recurrent Laryngeal Nerves Of Man And Giraffe

An Optomax Image Analyser has been used to carry out fibre-size analyses in six pairs of human recurrent laryngeal nerve and two pairs of recurrent nerves from adult giraffes. In every case the left recurrent laryngeal nerve was found to contain a greater number of large, fast-conducting fibres. Since this nerve is longer than the right, these findings may explain the simultaneous arrival of motor impulses to both sides of the laryngeal musculature.

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Giraffetistics: biodata of endangered translocated Rothschild’s giraffe during Operation Twiga in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, 2016

The appearance and anatomy of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) have always been a source of human intrigue, yet relatively little is known about the size of different parts of a giraffe’s body and whether taxons differ in size. Some studies have been conducted to measure the average height of some wild giraffe (sub)species (du Toit and Owen-Smith, 1989), limb length (Christiansen, 2002), and tail length (Siegfreid, 1990). As genetic and taxonomic studies have shown, there are different (sub)species of giraffe (Seymour

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The status of Faidherbia albida trees in the Hoanib River, Namibia

The Hoanib is an ephemeral river flowing from the highlands of Namibia through the hyper-arid Namib Desert to the Atlantic Ocean. Seasonal floods recharge groundwater that supports riparian woodlands, which are vitally important to wildlife and livestock. Previous studies prior to 2001 found that mega-herbivores are having an impact on the main tree species in the river system, Faidherbia albida. In 2002 two permanent boreholes were drilled for wildlife in order to reduce competition with livestock. This paper presents the

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