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Experiences with and the Challenges of Wildlife Health Management in the National Parks of Tanzania

Tanzania occupies approximately 945,200km2 of the eastern African region. Its protected area network covers about 28% of the total land area. Of this, 12 national parks (NPs) represent 4%, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area represents 1%, 15% comprises 31 game reserves (GRs), and 8% comprises 38 game-controlled areas. This means at least 19% of the land (NPs and GRs) is managed primarily for wildlife protection where no human settlement is allowed, and 9% of the land is intended to enable wildlife

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Assessment of characteristics and severity of giraffe skin disease in Tarangire, Manyara ecosystem

Giraffe Skin Disease (GSD) is a recently observed illness, mainly affecting adult and subadult giraffes, causing gray or crusty lesions on giraffe body. The general objective of this study was to assess and characterize GSD and its severity in Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem (TME). The study used road transects to gather field information on GSD. Eighty-four giraffes were sighted by systematic random sampling in the six study sites. Examination of giraffes involved body distribution of lesions, severity of the lesions and whether

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Giraffe Foraging Ecology In The Tarangire Manyara Ecosystem, Tanzania

Management of rangelands requires knowledge of forage species that are preferred or avoided by wildlife and livestock. The recent and rapid transformation of habitat by humans has led to increased concerns about the proper management of rangelands. In East African savanna ecosystems, the expansion of woody vegetation into previously open grasslands has led some rangeland managers to advocate for the active removal of native bushes to maintain grazing lawns in African savanna ecosystems. However, little is known about how browsing

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Wildlife Poaching practices in Tanzania’s Ruaha Landscape

Throughout the world, millions of wild species and products are illegally collected, used, traded and exported. Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape is considered a critical area for biodiversity, as well as an area where poaching exists. Despite the area being rich in abundance and diversity of wildlife, indepth analysis of wildlife species hunted most and the methods used by poachers is lacking. This study assessed the most hunted wildlife species, extracted products and uses, and associations between wildlife products, hunting methods, and

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Using haematophagous fly blood meals to study the diversity of blood-borne pathogens infecting wild mammals

Many emerging infectious diseases originate from wild animals, so there is a profound need for surveillance and monitoring of their pathogens. However, the practical difficulty of sample acquisition from wild animals tends to limit the feasibility and effectiveness of such surveys. Xenosurveillance, using blood-feeding invertebrates to obtain tissue samples from wild animals and then detect their pathogens, is a promising method to do so. Here, we describe the use of tsetse fly blood meals to determine (directly through molecular diagnostic

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Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

A population of Masai giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) occurs in Arusha National Park (ANP), which is not part of the regular Tanzanian national wildlife monitoring scheme. Urban development of Arusha city and agricultural expansion have contributed to the increasing isolation of ANP from other protected areas in northern Tanzania. The only published data on the Masai giraffe population of ANP were individual-based data collected in 1979 and 1980. Here, we used individual-based data from 2021 to 2022 to provide an

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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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Using spot pattern recognition to examine population biology, evolutionary ecology, sociality, and movements of girafes: a 70‑year retrospective

Individual-based studies where animals are monitored through space and time enable explorations of ecology, demography, evolutionary biology, movements, and behavior. Here, we review 70 years of research on an endangered African herbivore, the giraffe, based on individual spot pattern recognition, and profile an example of a long-term photographic mark–recapture study of Masai giraffes in Tanzania. We illustrate how individual-based data can be used to examine the fitness consequence (variation in survival and reproduction) of extrinsic environmental factors or intrinsic traits

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Exploring the connections between giraffe skin disease and lion predation

Rates at which predators encounter, hunt and kill prey are influenced by, among other things, the intrinsic condition of prey. Diseases can considerably compromise body condition, potentially weakening the ability of afflicted prey to avoid predation. Understanding predator–prey dynamics is particularly important when both species are threatened, as is the case with lions (Panthera leo) and giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). Importantly, an emergent disease called giraffe skin disease (GSD) may affect predatory interactions of lions and giraffes. Hypotheses suggest that GSD

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Camera-trap data do not indicate scaling of diel activity and cathemerality with body mass in an East African mammal assemblage

Diel activity patterns of animal species reflect constraints imposed by morphological, physiological, and behavioral trade-offs, but these trade-offs are rarely quantified for multispecies assemblages. Based on a systematic year-long camera-trap study in the species-rich mammal assemblage of Lake Manyara National Park (Tanzania), we estimated activity levels (hours active per day) and circadian rhythms of 17 herbivore and 11 faunivore species to determine the effects of body mass and trophic level on activity levels and cathemerality (the degree to which species

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