Woody vegetation damage by the African elephant during severe drought at Pongola Game Reserve, South Africa

Thornley, Reece; Spencer, Matthew; Zitzer, Heike R.; Parr, Catherine

doi:10.1111/aje.12736

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Furthermore, landscapes will often have refugia for trees (Sianga et al 2017), and elephant numbers may naturally fluctuate due to droughts or disease (Thornley et al 2020;Wato et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elephant rewilding indirectly affects the abundance of an arboreal but not generalist savanna lizard

Gordon

Lerm

Allin³

et al. 2021

Biodivers Conserv

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elephant rewilding indirectly affects the abundance of an arboreal but not generalist savanna lizard

Gordon

Lerm

Allin³

et al. 2021

Biodivers Conserv

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“…To determine which factors influenced the predicted probability of varying bee abundances at the feeders, we used a multinomial logistic regression (Qian et al, 2012), implemented in the package nnet in R 3.5.2 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2021; Venables & Ripley, 2002, section 7.3). See Agresti (2002, section 7.1), Burnham and Anderson (2002), and Thornley et al (2020) for more detailed descriptions of this modeling approach. Our model attempted to estimate the predicted probability of bee abundance at the feeding stations, as a function of ant abundance, air temperature, squared air temperature, whether observations were in trees or on the ground, and if observation were recorded during our exclusion treatment or not.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interspecific competition between ants and African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) may undermine the effectiveness of elephant beehive–deterrents in Africa

Thornley,

Cook,

Spencer

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Beehive deterrents are commonly used to mitigate human–elephant conflict and protect woody vegetation. To ensure hive activity, reduce abscondment risks, and maintain deterrent effectiveness, resident bee colonies require supplementary feeding during periods of low resource availability. However, our study found that ants frequently consume the supplementary feed in open feeders intended for bees. Anoplolepis custodiens was the most numerically dominant species that excluded bees from the feeders, followed by Camponotus and Crematogaster spp. With higher ant abundance, the predicted probability of zero bees being present at feeders increased up to 82%. This competition may undermine the efficacy of beehive deterrents as a conflict mitigation tool. We developed a simple and effective ant exclusion method that raised the overall predicted probability of bees' presence at supplementary feeding stations from 32% to 68%. Our findings suggest that innovative solutions to exclude ants from supplementary feed may improve the implementation and success of this conflict mitigation method across Africa.

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“…Elephants consume both woody vegetation and grasses, and they characteristically select vegetation depending on seasonal availability (de Boer et al, 2000; Buss, 1961; Laws, 1970; Owen‐Smith, 1988). They typically feed on tree species with high nutrients in their leaves (Holdo, 2003; Jachmann, 1989; Novellie et al, 1991; Wiseman et al, 2004) and select trees with large volumes of foliage to gain maximum energy output; the level of impact has been suggested to depend on tree characteristics, such as the tree height and canopy width (Boundja & Midgley, 2010; Howes et al, 2020; Levick & Asner, 2013; Thornley et al, 2020). Private wildlife reserves are often set on degraded livestock areas, which can force elephants to utilise woody vegetation year‐round due to poor grazing conditions (O’Connor et al, 2007; Smallie & O'connor, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) on tall trees and their recovery within a small, fenced reserve in South Africa

et al. 2022

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African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) can have detrimental impacts on trees; studies exploring elephant impact within small, fenced reserves, have lacked focus in determining elephant high‐use areas, the direct effect of fence line and tree recovery. The aim of this study is to assess whether elephants cause significant impact on trees in the small‐fenced Karongwe Private Game Reserve (KPGR) and to determine the levels of tree recovery. Trees ≥5 m in height were surveyed (n = 634 trees). Elephant location data were used to identify high‐ and low‐use areas. Five species accounted for 80% of the records; these were used for further analysis. Trees in high‐use areas were significantly less likely to show signs of debarking and push over. Tall trees were significantly more likely to be impacted by elephants, being associated with heightened risks of debarking and branches being broken but lower risks of being pushed over. Trees close to the fence line were not more impacted than trees near the centre of the reserve. The level of use, distance to the fence and tree height were not significant predictors of tree recovery indicators. Future mitigation efforts should focus on trees with high levels of impact and low levels of recovery.

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Woody vegetation damage by the African elephant during severe drought at Pongola Game Reserve, South Africa

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 13 publications

References 70 publications

Elephant rewilding indirectly affects the abundance of an arboreal but not generalist savanna lizard

Elephant rewilding indirectly affects the abundance of an arboreal but not generalist savanna lizard

Interspecific competition between ants and African honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) may undermine the effectiveness of elephant beehive–deterrents in Africa

Impacts of African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) on tall trees and their recovery within a small, fenced reserve in South Africa

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