Human-elephant conflict poses a major threat to elephants in many parts of Asia, including Sri Lanka. We studied human-elephant conflict in two areas with contrasting scenarios of landuse and conflict, Kahalle and Yala. Kahalle was developed and settled under the Mahaweli irrigation project and the main agricultural practice was irrigated agriculture, with two annual growing seasons. The area was a mosaic of settlements, agriculture, and small forest patches with ill defined human-and elephant-use areas. Elephants ranged within the habitat mosaic year round, occupying remnant forest patches and raiding adjacent crops at night. In contrast, Yala was dominated by a large protected area complex, and the main agricultural methods were slash-andburn agriculture and rain-fed paddy cultivation. Human-and elephant-use areas were well defined and segregated. The protected area provided elephants with a refuge and food during the rainy season, when the single annual crop was grown. During the dry season, elephants moved into slashand-burn areas and utilized leftover crops and pioneer vegetation in fallow fields. The landuse pattern and agricultural practices in Yala facilitated co-existence, whereas that in Kahalle led to year round conflict. We suggest that areas managed according to traditional landuse practices should be part of an elephant conservation strategy, where people and elephants have to share resources.

We studied the ranging patterns of 10 elephants in and around the Yala protected area complex, southern Sri Lanka, using VHF radio telemetry. All tracked elephants displayed similar ranging patterns. The observed home ranges were small (mean=115.2±64.0 km2) relative to reported home ranges in India, possibly in response to high habitat productivity and abundant perennial water sources. Elephants showed high fidelity to their ranges. Home ranges had relatively large core areas, suggesting intensive use of habitat. No geographically distinct seasonal ranges or migratory behavior was observed. Home range overlap was high, and territoriality was absent. Male musth ranges were considerably larger than non-musth ranges and may signify mate searching. Most elephants ranged both in and outside protected areas, suggesting that resources outside protected areas were important for their survival. Thus, translocating and restricting elephants to protected areas will be detrimental to their survival, as it limits resource access. The ranging patterns of Asian elephants suggest that conservation of the species requires their management both in and outside protected areas. Original investigation Ranging behavior of the Asian elephant in Sri Lanka AbstractWe studied the ranging patterns of ten elephants in and around the Yala protected area complex, southern Sri Lanka, using VHF radio telemetry. All tracked elephants displayed similar ranging patterns. The observed home ranges were small (mean = 115.2±64.0 km 2 ) relative to reported home ranges in India, possibly in response to high habitat productivity and abundant perennial water sources. Elephants showed high fidelity to their ranges. Home ranges had relatively large core areas, suggesting intensive use of habitat. No geographically distinct seasonal ranges or migratory behavior was observed. Home range overlap was high, and territoriality was absent.Male musth ranges were considerably larger than non-musth ranges and may signify mate searching. Most elephants ranged both in and outside protected areas, suggesting that resources outside protected areas were important for their survival.Thus, translocating and restricting elephants to protected areas will be detrimental to their survival, as it limits resource access. The ranging patterns of Asian elephants suggest that conservation of the species requires their management both in and outside protected areas.

The Endangered Asian elephant Elephas maximus comes into widespread conflict with agrarian communities, necessitating active management. The species’ distribution is of primary importance for management planning. However, data-based countrywide distribution maps have not been available for any of the 13 Asian elephant range states. We conducted a 5 × 5 km grid-based questionnaire survey in Sri Lanka to produce an island-wide elephant distribution map. Elephants occur over 59.9% of Sri Lanka and people are resident in 69.4% of elephant range, indicating the challenge of separating people and elephants at a landscape scale. Elephants in Sri Lanka have lost 16.1% of their range since 1960 but their current distribution remains largely contiguous. We found the range of adult males was 15.1% greater, and less seasonal, than that of herds, possibly because males have a higher tolerance for conflict with people. The distribution of conflict coincided with the co-occurrence of humans and elephants. We conclude that a human–elephant coexistence model is the only viable option for effectively mitigating human–elephant conflict and conserving elephants in Sri Lanka. The findings are currently being used to effect a paradigm change in elephant conservation and management in the country.

Shifting cultivation, in which fields are traditionally cultivated for two or three consecutive years and left fallow for four to five years, is an ancient practice still prevalent in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Traditionally, shifting agriculture is rain dependent and is limited to the wet season. However, traditional patterns are now changing due to population pressures. We assessed the use of shifting agriculture areas by Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and the availability of fodder in active fields during the dry season, to evaluate the impact of changing cultivation practices on elephants. We radio-tracked a juvenile and an adult male, representative of the two social groupings of herds and adult males respectively, based on the sexually dimorphic social structure of elephants. Although the small sample size precluded definitive conclusions, the tracking data were consistent with extensive elephant use of shifting cultivation areas during the dry season. We conducted line transects and plots in fields cultivated continuously for 1-20 years, assessing the growth of grasses and four browse species selected as indicators of elephant food. Grass was plentiful in early dry season, representing an important but transient food source. Browse density and volume remained constant through the dry season. Browse density but not volume decreased with increasing number of consecutive years of cultivation. We conclude that shifting agriculture fields under active cultivation are a significant dry season food source for elephants. This benefit is likely to decrease with additional years of continued cultivation and/or longer cultivation seasons. This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/. The license permits any user to download, print out, extract, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and source of the work. The license ensures that the published article will be as widely available as possible and that your article can be included in any scientific archive. Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers. Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers.Cite this paper as: Pastorini, J., Janaka, H. K., Nishantha, H. G., Prasad, T., Leimgruber, P. and Fernando, P. 2013. A preliminary study on the impact of changing shifting cultivation practices on dry season forage for Asian elephants in Sri Lanka.

Protected areas provide some of the last refuges for Asian elephants in the wild. Managing these areas for elephants will be critical for elephant conservation. Scientists know little about elephant habitat use in Asia and how invasive species or livestock grazing influence habitat use. We studied these issues in two protected areas in Sri Lanka, Udawalawe National Park and Hurulu Eco-Park. These areas contain some of Sri Lanka's largest remaining grasslands. These grasslands are threatened by the invasive and toxic shrub, Lantana camara, and are used for illegal livestock grazing. To measure habitat use by elephants and livestock, we conducted dung surveys along over 50 km of transects stratified across grassland, scrub, and forest. We surveyed 159 vegetation plots along these transects to assess plant composition, and mapped habitat types based on satellite images. We used mixed-effect models to determine the relative importance of habitats, livestock presence, and plant associations for elephant use. Elephant presence was greatest in scrub and grassland habitats, positively associated with both livestock presence and short graminoids, and unaffected by L. camara, which was widespread but at low densities. Given the importance of these areas to elephants, we recommend a precautionary management approach that focuses on curbing both illegal grazing and the spread of L. camara.

We assessed water-body use by elephants through monitoring elephant signs around them. Elephant footprints and dung piles were recorded at 25 water bodies fortnightly for one year. Elephants preferred perennial water bodies and avoided those with temporary human dwellings. Human activities did not significantly affect elephant use of water bodies, suggesting low incidence of activities and behavioral adaptation to them by elephants. Elephant signs at perennial water bodies increased in the dry season. The monitoring technique was able to detect differences in elephant densities in two areas and establish the presence of herds even at low densities. We conclude that outside protected areas, large perennial water bodies represent a preferred resource for elephants, and that assessing elephant signs around water bodies is a useful technique for monitoring elephant presence for management and research purposes.

We studied garbage consumption by Asian elephants at the Uddakandara garbage dump in southern Sri Lanka. Garbage at the dump was classified under six categories and quantified using a grid overlay. Elephants visiting the dump were individually identified by morphological criteria and items and quantities consumed by them were determined by focal animal sampling. Dung of elephants that did not consume garbage and those from the dump were compared quantitatively and dung constituents assessed by washing through three layered sieves. A total of 17 individual elephants visited the garbage dump during the study period, all of who were males. The observed sexual bias could be related to behavioural differences between the sexes. Elephants mostly consumed ‘fruits and vegetables’ and ‘prepared food’, possibly due to their higher palatability and nutritional value. Ingestion of polythene was incidental and associated with consuming prepared food. Proportions of the six categories in elephant diet and garbage piles were significantly different, indicating that elephants were highly selective when feeding. Elephant arrivals increased in response to unloading of garbage, suggesting attraction to fresh garbage. Dung analysis found that garbage consumption did not change the quantity and constituents of dung, except for the presence of anthropogenic items. As consumed anthropogenic items were regularly excreted, retention and obstruction of the alimentary tract are unlikely in elephants. Elephants feeding on garbage had better body condition than non-garbage consuming elephants, indicating that garbage provided better nutrition than natural food and was not detrimental to their health.

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