Human encroachment on wildlife habitats is leading to increased fragmentation; hence, there is an increasing focus on improving connectivity between remaining habitat. Large, wide‐ranging species such as the African elephant, (Loxodonta africana), are particularly vulnerable due to their extensive habitat requirements. Wildlife corridors have been created to facilitate movement, with little knowledge to date on whether they serve their intended function as transit routes, or whether they simply extend the available habitat for occupancy. We collected data on elephant behaviour in the Mount Kenya Elephant Corridor, with the aim of quantifying the utility of the corridor. A grid of 25 camera traps was used to survey the 478 ha corridor over 11 weeks. Cameras recorded over 43,000 photos with 694 separate events triggered by elephants. Patterns of use varied spatially and temporally, indicating that certain areas were treated as habitat extension, while others were predominantly for transit. These differences were likely due to variation in vegetation cover and levels of human disturbance. Corridor use differed amongst individuals, suggesting that use may depend on both the characteristics of the corridor itself and the social or resource needs of individual elephants.

Wildlife fencing has become more prevalent throughout Africa, although it has come with a price of increased habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat connectivity. In an effort to increase connectivity, managers of fenced conservancies can place strategic gaps along the fences to allow wildlife access to outside habitat, permitting exploration, dispersal and seasonal migration. Wildlife can become accustomed to certain movement pathways and can show fidelity to these routes over many years, even at the path level. Our study site has three dedicated wildlife crossings (fence-gaps) in its 142 km perimeter fence, and we continuously monitor these fence-gaps with camera-traps. We monitored one fence-gap before and after a 1.49 km fence section was completely removed and 6.8 km was reconfigured to leave only a two-strand electric fence meant to exclude elephant and giraffe, all other species being able to cross under the exclusionary fence. The removal and reconfiguration of the fence effectively rendered this fence-gap (which was left in place structurally) as a “ghost” fence-gap, as wildlife now had many options along the 8.29 km shared border to cross into the neighboring habitat. Although we documented some decline in the number of crossing events at the ghost-gap, surprisingly, 19 months after the total removal of the fence, we continued to document the usage of this crossing location by wildlife including by species that had not been previously detected at this location. We discuss potential drivers of this persistent and counterintuitive behavior as well as management implications.

We discuss various human‐wildlife conflicts (HWC) inherent within communities bordering a mid‐sized, semi‐porous wildlife conservancy in Kenya. HWC are a growing issue as human population expands into wildlife habitat to put people and wildlife in more frequent contact and compete for scarce resources. In 2018, we surveyed the crop‐raiding and livestock depredation experiences of 918 households from 10 separate villages and asked about the experiences of the villagers with HWC over the past 3 years. These communities are protected from wildlife with two different fence designs, a standard 12‐strand electrical fence, and an upgraded predator‐proof fence design. We found that between 70% and 91% of respondents had experienced some form of HWC including 39.5% who reported threats to their person from wildlife encroachments despite electrical perimeter fencing. HWC happened more often at night and during the dry seasons. The most common encroachments were from elephants, hyenas, leopards, and baboons. Community respondents rated that the upgraded predator‐proof fences performed better than the standard 12‐strand fences. However, even the predator‐proof design had issues with keeping monkeys from entering the communities and crop raiding. We discuss potential mitigation measures, including an improved predator‐proof fencing design that incorporates butterfly stingers that may offer better protection.

We have been monitoring spotted hyaena dens with camera traps at our site since 2016. We describe a novel phenomenon: concurrent subterranean den sharing between spotted hyaenas, warthogs, and crested porcupines at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. We discovered two different hyaena clans that occasionally shared active dens with warthogs and porcupines in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 but not since. We speculate on the reasons why and how this cohabitation arrangement arose and suggest that it might be based on a ‘healthy respect’ for the threats presented by their mutually formidable weaponry. We hope this note will encourage others to describe similar behaviour.