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Spatio-temporal functional diversity of large herbivores in Mudumu National Park, northeastern Namibia

Functional diversity is a component of biodiversity that includes the range of roles that organisms perform in communities and can explain and predict the impact of organisms on ecosystems. Mudumu National Park is an important ecosystem that acts as a wildlife corridor for migratory fauna moving between Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Zambia. Thus, a thorough understanding of the functional diversity of large herbivores would assist with the management of the park. The present study examined large herbivore species contribution to

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Habitat partitioning by ungulates on a game ranch in the Mopani veld

Large herbivores display varying degrees of habitat selectivity and thus exhibit a heterogeneous distribution. This study investigated the spatial and temporal distribution of Burchells zebra Equus burchelli, blue wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus, eland Taurotragus oryx, gemsbok Oryx gazella, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, impala Aepyceros melampus, kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros, and warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus, on the Messina Experimental Farm. The sighting frequency of the ungulates, expressed as distance covered by vehicle, divided by the number of individuals of a species recorded, is presented for

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Collapse of the world’s largest herbivores

Large wild herbivores are crucial to ecosystems and human societies. We highlight the 74 largest terrestrial herbivore species on Earth (body mass>–100 kg), the threats they face, their important and often overlooked ecosystem effects, and the conservation efforts needed to save them and their predators from extinction. Large herbivores are generally facing dramatic population declines and range contractions, such that ~60% are threatened with extinction. Nearly all threatened species are in developing countries, where major threats include hunting, land-use change,

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ENSO, rainfall and temperature influences on extreme population declines among African savanna ungulates

Climatic variation associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Nin˜o- Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has a widespread influence on the population dynamics of many organisms worldwide. While previous analyses have related the dynamics of northern ungulates to the NAO, there has been no comparable assessment for the species rich assemblages of tropical and subtropical Africa. Census records for 11 ungulate species in South Africa’s Kruger National Park over 1977–96 reveal severe population declines by seven species, which were inadequately

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Delayed effects of fire on habitat use by large herbivores in Acacia drepanolobium savanna

Fire is frequently used as a wildlife management tool in savanna habitats (Trollope, 1982). Burning stimulates sprouting of plants (Vesey-Fitzgerald, 1971), improving forage quality (Komarek, 1967; Dorgeloh, 1999). Several studies have supported quantitatively what has been well known by managers for some time, namely that ungulates are attracted by resprouting vegetation in recently burned areas (Moe, Wegge & Kapela, 1990; Wilsey, 1996; Tomor & Owen-Smith 2002). Rapid resprouting initiated by fire, and reinforced by herbivory (cf. McNaughton, 1985), may contribute

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Oscillations in large mammal populations: are they related to predation or rainfall?

Cyclic population dynamics is relatively common among populations of small mammals in high latitudes but is not yet established among African savanna ungulates. However, oscillations may be expected in large mammal populations subject to quasi-periodic oscillations in regional rainfall. We evaluated evidence for environmentally entrained oscillations in a large-mammal predator–prey system in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa, where rainfall exhibits quasi-periodic oscillations. The evaluation is based on analysis of comparative changes in the abundance of twelve ungulate species throughout

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Trends in populations of elephant and other large herbivores in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe, as revealed by sample aerial surveys

For 30 years, regular aerial surveys in Zimbabwean protected areas were funded, designed and executed primarily to estimate elephant numbers. Other large herbivores were recorded, even though some species were not easily seen from the air in savannah woodlands. Population estimates for species other than elephant provided indices of abundance that could be used to determine temporal trends in population size. This study tests for significant trends in the abundance of large herbivores in Gonarezhou National Park, assuming that data

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Stability in a multi-species assemblage of large herbivores in East Africa

Animal census data from Lake Manyara National Park in northern Tanzania are presented. The data refer to large mammalian herbivores, that is individually heavier than twenty kg, of which the numbers were counted in nine different years between 1959 and 1984. The total biomass of these herbivores was comprised mainly of African buffalo and African elephant. Five functional groups of herbivores were distinguished (buffalo, ” elephant-as-grazer”, ” elephant-as-browser “, “other grazers”, and “other browsers”). The pressures of all these groups

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