Crop raiding by wildlife poses major threats to both wildlife conservation and human well‐being in agroecosystems worldwide. These threats are particularly acute in many parts of Africa, where crop raiders include globally threatened megafauna such as elephants, and where smallholder agriculture is a primary source of human livelihood. One framework for understanding herbivore feeding behaviour, the forage‐maturation hypothesis, predicts that herbivores should align their movements with intermediate forage biomass (i.e., peak green‐up); this phenomenon is known as “surfing the green wave.” Crop‐raiding elephants, however, often consume not just foliage, but also fruits and tubers (e.g., maize and potatoes), which generally mature after seasonal peaks in photosynthetic activity. Thus, although elephants have been reported to surf the green wave in natural habitats, they may utilize a different strategy in cultivated landscapes by selecting crops that are “browning down.” We sought to understand the factors that underpin movement of elephants into agricultural landscapes. In Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, we used movement data from GPS‐collared elephants, together with precipitation records, remotely sensed estimates of landscape greenness (NDVI), DNA‐based diet analysis, measurements of plant nutritional quality and survey‐based metrics of crop availability to understand spatiotemporal variation in elephant crop‐raiding behaviour. Elephants tracked peak NDVI while foraging inside the Park. During the dry season, however, when NDVI within the Park declined and availability of mature crops was high, crop raiding increased dramatically, and elephants consistently selected crop plants that were browning down while foraging in cultivated landscapes. Crops contained significantly higher digestible energy than wild food plants, but comparable (and sometimes lower) levels of digestible protein, suggesting that this foraging strategy maximized energy rather than protein intake. Our study is the first to combine GPS tracking data with high‐resolution diet analysis and community‐based reporting of crop availability to reveal fine‐scale plasticity in foraging behaviour of elephants at the human–wildlife interface. Our results extend the forage‐maturation hypothesis by showing that elephants surf waves of plant brown‐down in cultivated landscapes. These findings can aid efforts to reduce human–elephant conflict by enabling wildlife managers to prioritize mitigation actions in time and space with limited resources.
- Award ID(s):
- 1806833
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10282876
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 179
- ISSN:
- 1742-5662
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 20210215
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract The Kazavango‐Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is home to the largest remaining elephant population in Africa but is also the site of high levels of human‐elephant conflict through crop depredation. Offsetting the costs of coexisting with elephants in this area is critical to incentivizing elephant conservation within community‐based conservation (CBC) areas, and trophy hunting has long been touted as a method for generating revenue for communities from wildlife. However, the idea that sustainable elephant hunting can offset the costs of crop depredation remains largely untested. We combined household survey data, financial records, and elephant population data to compare the potential benefits of sustainable hunting with the costs of crop depredation in a CBC area in northeastern Namibia. We determined that sustainable trophy hunting only returns ~30% of the value of crops lost to the community and cannot alone offset the current costs of coexistence with elephants. As core institutions supporting the practice of conservation, CBC efforts must promote community management capacity to combine multiple wildlife‐based income streams and build partnerships at multiple scales of governance to address the challenges of elephant management.
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Abstract To conserve wide‐ranging species in human‐modified landscapes, it is essential to understand how animals selectively use or avoid cultivated areas. Use of agriculture leads to human–wildlife conflict, but evidence suggests that individuals may differ in their tendency to be involved in conflict. This is particularly relevant to wild elephant populations.
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0215
