The Akagera NP (and the Mutara GR) in northeastern Rwanda are considered part of the most complex and biodiversity rich savannah ecosystem in eastern Africa. Following the violent past of Rwanda, the park has recovered from civil war, poaching and overgrazing, counting today more than 12,000 large mammals. Since proclamation in 1934, a wealth of ecological research was carried in these protected areas. This literature review summarizes the available literature and puts it into a historical context, compiling more than 90 books, book chapters, and journal articles but also unpublished theses and reports respective to the ecology and conservation of mammals.
Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) originates from tropical Central and South America and has become invasive in about 50 countries. It causes problems when invading rangelands due to its toxicity to livestock and its tendency to form dense, monotonous thickets. Its invasiveness can partly be explained by the high tannin content largely protecting the species from being browsed, its tolerance to a wide range of environmental conditions, as well as its general preference for anthropogenically disturbed habitats. The dispersal of L. camara is facilitated by birds and other animals consuming its drupes (endozoochory), and so both wild and domestic ungulates could contribute to its spread. In our study, we investigated the distribution of L. camara in the Mutara rangelands of north-eastern Rwanda, an area that faced dramatic landscape changes in recent decades. We assessed 23 ecological factors and factors related to land-use and conservation-political history. Major effects on the local abundance of L. camara were found in that the relative canopy cover of L. camara was negatively correlated with the occurrence of other shrubs (suggesting competition for space and nutrients), while encounter rates of houses, ‘living fences’ (Euphorbia tirucalli L.) and cattle tracks were positively correlated with L. camara cover. Hence, the spread of non-native L. camara in the Mutara rangelands appears to be linked to landscape alterations arising from the transformation of rangelands supporting traditional pastoralist communities to other agricultural land-use forms.
Large- to medium-sized African ungulates are often studied in conservation areas, ignoring the fact that most African landscapes are nowadays heavily impacted by agricultural and pastoralist practices. The present study emphasises the wealth of information obtained from studying a remnant population of a medium-sized ungulate, the impala (Aepyceros melampus), on degraded rangelands in Rwanda. Compared with impala occurring under similar climatic conditions in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the study population showed a marked reduction in daytime activity, absence of a mid-day resting phase, and a slight increase in activity towards the late afternoon. This pattern was not directly correlated with daily variation in human activity. It is argued that hunting/poaching leads impala to seek shelter to such a degree that any daytime rhythmicity in activity patterns is lost and that increased afternoon activity reflects a shifted cost-benefit ratio of hiding versus foraging, as hungry individuals are more likely to take risks. Indeed, impala were more likely to encounter cattle herds and their herdsmen towards the afternoon. The study augments understanding of behavioural flexibility, potential for habituation and adaptation to human-induced habitat alterations in impala and highlights a possible function of rangelands as dispersal corridors for African wildlife populations.
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