There will be conflict – agricultural landscapes are prime, rather than marginal, habitats for Asian elephants

Abstract

Misconceptions about species’ ecological preferences compromise conservation efforts. Whenever people and elephants share landscapes, human–elephant conflicts (HEC) occur in the form of crop raiding, elephant attacks on people and retaliatory actions from people on elephants. HEC is considered the main threat to the endangered Asian elephant Elephas maximus. Much of HEC mitigation in Asia is based on rescuing elephants from conflict areas and returning them to nature, for example, by means of ‘problem elephant’ translocation. Here, we used two independent and extensive datasets comprising elephant GPS telemetry and HEC incident reports to assess the relationship between elephant habitat preferences and the occurrence of HEC at a broad spatial scale in Peninsular Malaysia. Specifically, we assessed (a) the habitat suitability of agricultural landscapes where HEC incidents occur and (b) sexual differences in habitat preferences with implications for HEC mitigation and elephant conservation. We found strong differences in habitat use between females and males and that the locations of HEC incidents were areas of very high habitat suitability for elephants, especially for females. HEC reports suggest that in Peninsular Malaysia females are involved in more crop damage conflicts than males, whereas males are more prone to direct encounters with people. Our results show that human‐dominated landscapes are prime elephant habitat, and not merely marginal areas that elephants use in the absence of other options. The high ecological overlap between elephants and people means that conflict will continue to happen when both species share landscapes. HEC mitigation strategies, therefore, cannot be based on elephant removal (e.g. translocation) and need to be holistic approaches that integrate both ecological and human social dimensions to promote tolerated human–elephant coexistence.

Urban expansion and infrastructure development reduce habitat suitability for Asian elephants in southwestern China

“…We computed land-use metrics separately in 2000 and 2020, based on the global land use data product GlobeLand30 (Chen et al 2014), using the sampling strategy of a moving window at 5 radii in FRAGSTATS version 4.2.1 (McGarigal et al 2012). We computed metrics at the class level (each land-use type) for 4 potentially important land uses: mixed forest, grassland, cropland, and buildings (Liu et al 2018, Neupane et al 2019, de la Torre et al 2021.…”

Descriptive Spatial Analysis of Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) Distribution and Mapping HEC Hotspots in Keonjhar Forest Division, India

“…Such fragmented habitats cause elephants to come into closer proximity and greater contact with human society as elephants seek to fulfill their nutritional, ecological and behavioral needs (Sukumar, 1990). This overlap in the space use between people and elephants lead to more frequent conflict (Wilson et al, 2015;de la Torre et al, 2021). Although past studies have analyzed spatial variation of HEC, conceptual obstacles still exist due to the complex nature of the relationship between HEC and its occurrence in a specific spatial context.…”

Recent estimate of Asian elephants in Borneo reveals a smaller population

“…The new estimate suggests a need to carefully consider any population impacts, systematically identify areas where elephants can be translocated, and develop translocation guidelines. Also, several studies have suggested that translocation is not an effective or a long-term solution (Fernando et al 2012, de la Torre et al 2021, and small populations may suffer a very high relative extinction risk even at a low removal (translocation) rate (Saaban et al 2020).…”