Road will ruin Serengeti

Dobson, Andrew; Borner, Markus; Sinclair, A. R. E.; Hudson, Peter J.; Anderson, T. Michael; Bigurube, Gerald; Davenport, Tim B. B.; Deutsch, James C.; Durant, Sarah M.; Estes, Richard; Estes, Anna B.; Fryxell, John M.; Foley, Charles; Gadd, Michelle E.; Haydon, Daniel T.; Holdø, Ricardo M.; Holt, Robert D.; Homewood, Katherine; Hopcraft, J. Grant C.; Hilborn, Ray; Jambiya, George; Laurenson, M. Karen; Melamari, Lota; Morindat, Alais Ole; Ogutu, Joseph O.; Schaller, George B.; Wolanski, Eric

doi:10.1038/467272a

Cited by 87 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…4 and 5;. This response emphasizes the fact that human disturbance can disrupt herbivore migrations even without causing direct mor- tality, a threat that is often underrated in infrastructure development programs (Dobson et al 2010). …”

Section: Movement In the Face Of Predation And Starvationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition, predation, and migration: individual choice patterns of Serengeti migrants captured by hierarchical models

Hopcraft

Morales

Beyer

et al. 2014

Ecological Monographs

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Abstract. Large-herbivore migrations occur across gradients of food quality or food abundance that are generally determined by underlying geographic patterns in rainfall, elevation, or latitude, in turn causing variation in the degree of interspecific competition and the exposure to predators. However, the role of top-down effects of predation as opposed to the bottom-up effects of competition for resources in shaping migrations is not well understood. We studied 30 GPS radio-collared wildebeest and zebra migrating seasonally in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem to ask how predation and food availability differentially affect the individual movement patterns of these co-migrating species. A hierarchical analysis of movement trajectories (directions and distances) in relation to grass biomass, high-quality food patches, and predation risk show that wildebeest tend to move in response to food quality, with little attention to predation risk. In contrast, individual zebra movements reflect a balance between the risk of predation and the access to high-quality food of sufficient biomass. Our analysis shows how two migratory species move in response to different attributes of the same landscape. Counterintuitively and in contrast to most other animal movement studies, we find that both species move farther each day when resources are locally abundant than when they are scarce. During the wet season when the quality of grazing is at its peak, both wildebeest and zebra move the greatest distances and do not settle in localized areas to graze for extended periods. We propose that this punctuated movement in highquality patches is explained by density dependency, whereby large groups of competing individuals (up to 1.65 million grazers) rapidly deplete the localized grazing opportunities. These findings capture the roles of predation and competition in shaping animal migrations, which are often claimed but rarely measured.

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Section: Movement In the Face Of Predation And Starvationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition, predation, and migration: individual choice patterns of Serengeti migrants captured by hierarchical models

Hopcraft

Morales

Beyer

et al. 2014

Ecological Monographs

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“…For example, various categories of protected areas in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia are increasingly settled (Simasiku et al, 2008;Lindsey and Bento, 2012). Human population growth rates are high on the boundaries of protected areas and may even be higher in such areas than elsewhere (Wittemyer et al, 2008) (though that postulation is contested (Joppa et al, 2009) Human encroachment can be greatly exacerbated by poorly planned infrastructure such as roads, clinics, schools and boreholes in or close to wildlife areas (van der Westhuizen, 2007;Dobson et al, 2010). Though well-intentioned, such developments tend to result in influxes of people into areas poorly suited to human settlement, creating dependency on exploitation of natural resources such as wildlife.…”

Section: Increasing Human Encroachment Of Wildlife Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The bushmeat trade in African savannas: Impacts, drivers, and possible solutions

Lindsey

Balme

Becker

et al. 2013

Biological Conservation

229

247

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“…The long-distance seasonal migrations of monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus in North America, wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus in the Serengeti, songbirds across the Americas, and grey Eschrichtius robustus and humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in the Pacific Ocean are among the most spectacular natural phenomena (Wilcove, 2009). However, migrations across many different taxa and in many locations have been extinguished or are under threat from anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, construction of barriers, overexploitation and climate change (Wilcove & Wikelski, 2008;Dobson et al, 2010). In addition, migrations are often poorly understood and many may remain uncharacterized, as evidenced by the rediscovery of a migration of large mammals in Sudan that rivals that of the Serengeti in abundance, which remained largely undocumented until 2007 (Harris et al, 2009;Wilcove, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A newly discovered wildlife migration in Namibia and Botswana is the longest in Africa

Naidoo

Chase²,

Beytell

et al. 2014

Oryx

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Migrations of most animal taxa are declining as a result of anthropogenic pressures and land-use transformation. Here, we document and characterize a previously unknown multi-country migration of Burchell's zebra Equus quagga that is the longest of all recorded large mammal migrations in Africa. Our data from eight adult female zebras collared on the border of Namibia and Botswana show that in December 2012 all individuals crossed the Chobe River and moved due south to Nxai Pan National Park in Botswana, where they spent a mean duration of 10 weeks before returning, less directly, to their dry season floodplain habitat. The same southward movements were also observed in December 2013. Nxai Pan appeared to have similar environmental conditions to several possible alternative wet season destinations that were closer to the dry season habitat on the Chobe River, and water availability, but not habitat or vegetation biomass, was associated with higher-use areas along the migratory pathway. These results suggest a genetic and/or cultural basis for the choice of migration destination, rather than an environmental one. Regardless of the cause, the round-trip, straight-line migration distance of 500 km is greater than that covered by wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus during their well-known seasonal journey in the Serengeti ecosystem. It merits conservation attention, given the decline of large-scale ecological processes such as animal migrations.

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Road will ruin Serengeti

Cited by 87 publications

References 12 publications

Competition, predation, and migration: individual choice patterns of Serengeti migrants captured by hierarchical models

Competition, predation, and migration: individual choice patterns of Serengeti migrants captured by hierarchical models

The bushmeat trade in African savannas: Impacts, drivers, and possible solutions

A newly discovered wildlife migration in Namibia and Botswana is the longest in Africa

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