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Vertical zonation of browse quality in tree canopies exposed to a size-structured guild of African browsing ungulates

We investigated whether the food quality of tree foliage for African savanna browsers varies across the feeding height range of the guild. This was to address the question of why giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) generally feed at a higher level in the canopy than is accessible to all other browsers. We defined a giraffe browse unit (GBU) as the length of twig corresponding to the average “bite” taken by giraffes from two staple browse plants: Acacia nigrescens and Boscia albitrunca. We

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Illegal Hunting & The Bushmeat Trade In Savanna Africa: Drivers, Impacts & Solutions To Address The Problem

In this report, the term ‘bushmeat’ is used to denote meat from wild animals that have been hunted illegally, which aside from being used for personal consumption, is often sold commercially. The bushmeat trade has long been recognized as a severe threat to wildlife populations in the forests of West and Central Africa and is considered a conservation crisis in that biome. Far less attention has been focused on the issue in African savannas, perhaps due to a misconception that

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Experimental evidence that effects of megaherbivores on mesoherbivore space use are influenced by species’ traits

1. The extinction of 80% of megaherbivore (>1,000 kg) species towards the end of the Pleistocene altered vegetation structure, fire dynamics and nutrient cycling world-wide. Ecologists have proposed (re)introducing megaherbivores or their ecological analogues to restore lost ecosystem functions and reinforce extant but declining megaherbivore populations. However, the effects of megaherbivores on smaller herbivores are poorly understood. 2. We used long-term exclusion experiments and multispecies hierarchical models fitted to dung counts to test (a) the effect of megaherbivores (elephant and

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Long-term population dynamics of African ungulates in Waterberg Plateau National Park, Namibia

The current study was undertaken to determine long-term population trends (33 years) of ungulate species in the Waterberg National Park (WNP), Namibia, using aerial and waterhole counts of ungulates during the years 1980−2013.We tried to establish how rainfall influences the multi-species population dynamics. During this period sixteen ungulates species were recorded. Among these, eight have shown an increase in numbers during the years 1984−2013, six other decreased, and populations of two other species remained stable. Roan and sable antelope, kudu

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Elephant-induced structural changes in the vegetation and habitat selection by large herbivores in an African savanna

African elephants can affect the quality of the habitat of other species by breaking or uprooting trees and shrubs in savannas. Their effect on vegetation has been widely studied but less is known about the effects of such vegetation changes on other animals. We studied how changes in the vegetation caused by elephants influence the selection of microhabitats by five African herbivore species (giraffe, kudu, steenbok, impala, and zebra) in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. There was no clear significant effect

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Regrowth and palatability of acacia shoots following pruning by African savanna browsers’

Stands of two species of African Acacia were monitored for 1 yr in a natural savanna ecosystem, to compare shoot regrowth and leaf chemistry in lightly browsed and heavily browsed trees. Where ungulates concentrated at a seasonal waterhole, A. nigrescens was more severely browsed than the thornier and finer leafed A. tortilis. Shoot regrowth in heavily browsed A. nigrescens more than compensated for herbivory, as net annual shoot extension was not significantly different from that in lightly browsed trees. Foliage

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