Land use drives differential resource selection by African elephants in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, Kenya

Abstract

Understanding drivers of space use by African elephants is critical to their conservation and management, particularly given their large home-ranges, extensive resource requirements, ecological role as ecosystem engineers, involvement in human-elephant conflict and as a target species for ivory poaching. In this study we investigated resource selection by elephants inhabiting the Greater Mara Ecosystem in Southwestern Kenya in relation to three distinct but spatially contiguous management zones: (i) the government protected Maasai Mara National Reserve (ii) community-owned wildlife conservancies, and (iii) elephant range outside any formal wildlife protected area. We combined GPS tracking data from 49 elephants with spatial covariate information to compare elephant selection across these management zones using a hierarchical Bayesian framework, providing insight regarding how human activities structure elephant spatial behavior. We also contrasted differences in selection by zone across several data strata: sex, season and time-of-day. Our results showed that the strongest selection by elephants was for closed-canopy forest and the strongest avoidance was for open-cover, but that selection behavior varied significantly by management zone and selection for cover was accentuated in human-dominated areas. When contrasting selection parameters according to strata, variability in selection parameter values reduced along a protection gradient whereby elephants tended to behave more similarly (limited plasticity) in the human dominated, unprotected zone and more variably (greater plasticity) in the protected reserve. However, avoidance of slope was consistent across all zones. Differences in selection behavior was greatest between sexes, followed by time-of-day, then management zone and finally season (where seasonal selection showed the least differentiation of the contrasts assessed). By contrasting selection coefficients across strata, our analysis quantifies behavioural switching related to human presence and impact displayed by a cognitively advanced megaherbivore. Our study broadens the knowledge base about the movement ecology of African elephants and builds our capacity for both management and conservation.

Crop use structures resource selection strategies for African elephants in a human‐dominated landscape

“…Wall et al. ( 2024 ) found that population‐wide crop selection in the Masai Mara varied most between wet and dry seasons, and our results provide further insight suggesting that crops play an important role in shaping seasonal resource selection strategies in the system. Further exploration is needed on the influence of seasonal dynamics on resource selection and space use, including quantifying and accounting for seasonal conditions when assessing the degree of differentiation observed in strategies.…”

“…In the Serengeti-Mara, crops had the highest variation in selection between individuals, similar crop use between individuals in the dry season was a strong driver in similarity in overall resource selection strategies, a factor not structuring dry season resource selection in Northern Kenya. The dry season is when crop use by elephants is highest in the Serengeti-Mara system and the differences in crop use between individuals are most stark (i.e., those thatraid crops and those that do not;Hahn et al, 2021) Wall et al (2024). found that population-wide crop selection in the Masai Mara varied most between wet and dry seasons, and our results provide further insight suggesting that crops play an important role in shaping seasonal resource selection strategies in the system.…”

“…In addition, drainages and forest cover also showed similar positive selection. In previous research from the Mara region assessing population-wide trends in selection across land management types, these covariates were also identified as showing little differentiation (Wall et al, 2024). Together, the small variation in selection suggests that slope, drainages, and forest are important drivers for elephant space use across the Serengeti-Mara Previous findings have shown that elephants change their behavior to use crops, including shifting their ranges as crops mature (Branco et al, 2019), changing daily activity budgets (Hahn et al, 2021), and altering their movement patterns prior to raiding (Troup et al, 2020).…”

“…In addition, drainages and forest cover also showed similar positive selection. In previous research from the Mara region assessing population‐wide trends in selection across land management types, these covariates were also identified as showing little differentiation (Wall et al., 2024 ). Together, the small variation in selection suggests that slope, drainages, and forest are important drivers for elephant space use across the Serengeti‐Mara ecosystem and should be considered in protecting elephant habitat and building connectivity.…”

“…Previous research on a subset of Mara‐Serengeti population has shown that the type of protection and management (i.e. strictly protected or mixed use) has strong effects on resource selection, and these effects interact with time of day, season, and sex (Wall et al., 2024 ). In particular, selection in unprotected areas is strongly differentiated between wet and dry seasons and time of day, suggesting that night‐time crop‐use and human activity may be a key driver in resource selection strategies.…”