Using spot pattern recognition to examine population biology, evolutionary ecology, sociality, and movements of giraffes: a 70-year retrospective

Lee, Derek; Lohay, George G.; Cavener, Douglas R.; Bond, Monica L.

doi:10.1007/s42991-022-00261-3

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…We sampled each road segment only one time per survey, and systematically shifted the order and direction in which we sampled road transects similar to a Latin Square design to reduce sampling biases. Our sampling design has proved to be effective in providing precise estimates of population size, sex‐age distributions and demographic rates (Lee et al, 2016, 2022; Lee & Bolger, 2017; Lee & Bond, 2022).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

et al. 2023

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A population of Masai giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) occurs in Arusha National Park (ANP), which is not part of the regular Tanzanian national wildlife monitoring scheme. Urban development of Arusha city and agricultural expansion have contributed to the increasing isolation of ANP from other protected areas in northern Tanzania. The only published data on the Masai giraffe population of ANP were individual-based data collected in 1979 and 1980. Here, we used individual-based data from 2021 to 2022 to provide an update on the current population size, population sex and age structure, movements and genetic connectivity of giraffes in ANP.We documented a 49% population decline and changes in the age distribution, adult sex ratio, reproductive rate and movement patterns relative to the previous study.Mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed genetic connectivity between ANP and other populations east of the Gregory Rift Escarpments in northern Tanzania and southeastern Kenya, evidence that Masai giraffe once moved widely across the landscape.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lee et al (2022), Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrtg. GenBank accession numbers for all sequences used in the manuscript are listed in Table S1.…”

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confidence: 99%

Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

et al. 2023

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“…We developed an IBM parameterized with demographic data from the Masai Giraffe Project (Lee & Bond, 2022; Lee et al, 2022; Table 1), one of the biggest individual‐based demographic studies of a large mammal, with more than 3100 giraffes of all sexes and age classes reliably identified over 8 years in an unfenced 4500 km 2 area of the Tarangire Ecosystem in Tanzania (latitude 3.27°–4.08° S and longitude 35.73°–36.23° E). Like other East African savannas, Tarangire has three distinct precipitation seasons but unpredictable amounts of seasonal rainfall (Foley & Faust, 2010; Prins & Loth, 1988).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Giraffe demographic rates in the Tarangire Ecosystem exhibit significant spatial and temporal variation resulting from dynamic environmental conditions (summarized in Lee et al, 2022). Our core IBM incorporates the influence of climate and anthropogenic activities on giraffe demographic rates that we learned from previous research, enabling us to then explore how varying these factors might affect abundances and extinction risk and how targeted management actions might mitigate some of the potentially severe effects.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extinction risks and mitigation for a megaherbivore, the giraffe, in a human‐influenced landscape under climate change

Bond,

Lee,

Paniw

2023

Global Change Biology

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Megaherbivores play “outsized” roles in ecosystem functioning but are vulnerable to human impacts such as overhunting, land‐use changes, and climate extremes. However, such impacts—and combinations of these impacts—on population dynamics are rarely examined using empirical data. To guide effective conservation actions under increasing global‐change pressures, we developed a socially structured individual‐based model (IBM) using long‐term demographic data from female giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) in a human‐influenced landscape in northern Tanzania, the Tarangire Ecosystem. This unfenced system includes savanna habitats with a wide gradient of anthropogenic pressures, from national parks, a wildlife ranch and community conservation areas, to unprotected village lands. We then simulated and projected over 50 years how realistic environmental and land‐use management changes might affect this metapopulation of female giraffes. Scenarios included: (1) anthropogenic land‐use changes including roads and agricultural/urban expansion; (2) reduction or improvement in wildlife law enforcement measures; (3) changes in populations of natural predators and migratory alternative prey; and (4) increases in rainfall as predicted for East Africa. The factor causing the greatest risk of rapid declines in female giraffe abundance in our simulations was a reduction in law enforcement leading to more poaching. Other threats decreased abundances of giraffes, but improving law enforcement in both of the study area's protected areas mitigated these impacts: a 0.01 increase in giraffe survival probability from improved law enforcement mitigated a 25% rise in heavy rainfall events by increasing abundance 19%, and mitigated the expansion of towns and blockage of dispersal movements by increasing abundance 22%. Our IBM enabled us to further quantify fine‐scale abundance changes among female giraffe social communities, revealing potential source–sink interactions within the metapopulation. This flexible methodology can be adapted to test additional ecological questions in this landscape, or to model populations of giraffes or other species in different ecosystems.

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Using spot pattern recognition to examine population biology, evolutionary ecology, sociality, and movements of giraffes: a 70-year retrospective

Cited by 2 publications

References 144 publications

Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park

Extinction risks and mitigation for a megaherbivore, the giraffe, in a human‐influenced landscape under climate change

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