Exploring habitat use by cheetahs using ecological niche factor analysis

Abstract

Understanding the basis of habitat choice having important implications for explaining the distribution of organisms, as well as helping to differentiate between habitats of different quality for effective management. In this study, the effects of sex, age and reproductive status on habitat use patterns of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus in the Serengeti plains were explored using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA). Our results showed that gender and territoriality did not affect patterns of habitat use. However, females tended to be more specialized when they were young than when they were older, displaying a more restricted ecological niche. Likewise, older females without cubs were more specialized than the same adult females with young cubs. This result did not hold for younger females. Altogether, the ENFA approach allowed us to (1) use the large amount of incidental sighting data collected over 12 years on cheetah spatial distribution; (2) identify the importance of reproductive status and age on the relationship between animals and their habitat; (3) further demonstrate that ENFA is applicable in a wide range of situations, including for exploring individual variation in niche definition.

Does size matter? An investigation of habitat use across a carnivore assemblage in the Serengeti, Tanzania

“…Such results may be partly due to the fact that carnivores are a relatively generalist taxon, hence their ecological niche might be expected to be relatively broad, and less habitat specific than other taxa. As far as we are aware, and aside from Pettorelli et al. (2009, 2010) which are discussed in detail below, indices of model fit (CVI, AVI and BI) have only previously been published for two other species of carnivore, the giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca (Xuezhi et al.…”

“…Such results may be partly due to the fact that carnivores are a relatively generalist taxon, hence their ecological niche might be expected to be relatively broad, and less habitat specific than other taxa. As far as we are aware, and aside from Pettorelli et al (2009Pettorelli et al ( , 2010 which are discussed in detail below, indices of model fit (CVI, AVI and BI) have only previously been published for two other species of carnivore, the giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca (Xuezhi et al 2008) and the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra (Cianfrani et al 2010). These species are unusual amongst carnivores in that they are dependent on particular habitat types, bamboo forests and rivers, hence it is perhaps not surprising that the fit of the ENFA was much better than the species examined here.…”

Body temperature, activity patterns and hunting in free‐living cheetah: biologging reveals new insights

“…When they can, they avoid high heat loads by seeking shade (Schaller 1968;Saleh et al 2001;Skinner & Chimimba 2005) and resting on hot days (Bothma & Walker 1999). In addition to their favored termite mounds (Bothma & Walker 1999), cheetahs select rocky outcrops (kopjes) as vantage points (Caro & Collins 1987;Pettorelli et al 2009), potentially for their access to shade (Hilborn et al 2012) and exposure to wind.…”

Combining landscape suitability and habitat connectivity to conserve the last surviving population of cheetah in Asia

“…We selected 10 environmental and anthropogenic variables likely to affect the distribution of the cheetah (Pettorelli, Hilborn, Broekhuis, & Durant, 2009;Farhadinia & Hemami, 2010;Burton, Sam, Balangtaa, & Brashares, 2012;Andresen, Everatt, & Somers, 2014; Table 1). Land cover classes including low canopy rangelands, moderate canopy rangelands, shrublands and barelands (see Table 1 for list of variables To provide continuity for the extracted categories (Franklin, 2010), we calculated the proportion of each cover type within a 5 × 5 km grid by running the ArcMap Neighborhood statistic tool.…”