The spatial scaling of habitat selection by African elephants
- PMID: 21054380
- DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01764.x
The spatial scaling of habitat selection by African elephants
Abstract
1. Understanding and accurately predicting the spatial patterns of habitat use by organisms is important for ecological research, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management. However, this understanding is complicated by the effects of spatial scale, because the scale of analysis affects the quantification of species-environment relationships. 2. We therefore assessed the influence of environmental context (i.e. the characteristics of the landscape surrounding a site), varied over a large range of scales (i.e. ambit radii around focal sites), on the analysis and prediction of habitat selection by African elephants in Kruger National Park, South Africa. 3. We focused on the spatial scaling of the elephants' response to their main resources, forage and water, and found that the quantification of habitat selection strongly depended on the scales at which environmental context was considered. Moreover, the inclusion of environmental context at characteristic scales (i.e. those at which habitat selectivity was maximized) increased the predictive capacity of habitat suitability models. 4. The elephants responded to their environment in a scale-dependent and perhaps hierarchical manner, with forage characteristics driving habitat selection at coarse spatial scales, and surface water at fine spatial scales. 5. Furthermore, the elephants exhibited sexual habitat segregation, mainly in relation to vegetation characteristics. Male elephants preferred areas with high tree cover and low herbaceous biomass, whereas this pattern was reversed for female elephants. 6. We show that the spatial distribution of elephants can be better understood and predicted when scale-dependent species-environment relationships are explicitly considered. This demonstrates the importance of considering the influence of spatial scale on the analysis of spatial patterning in ecological phenomena.
© 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 British Ecological Society.
Similar articles
-
Forage quantity, quality and depletion as scale-dependent mechanisms driving habitat selection of a large browsing herbivore.J Anim Ecol. 2010 Jul;79(4):910-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01701.x. Epub 2010 Apr 27. J Anim Ecol. 2010. PMID: 20443990
-
The functional value of Caribbean coral reef, seagrass and mangrove habitats to ecosystem processes.Adv Mar Biol. 2006;50:57-189. doi: 10.1016/S0065-2881(05)50002-6. Adv Mar Biol. 2006. PMID: 16782451 Review.
-
Linking movement and oviposition behaviour to spatial population distribution in the tree hole mosquito Ochlerotatus triseriatus.J Anim Ecol. 2008 Jan;77(1):156-66. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01319.x. J Anim Ecol. 2008. PMID: 18177335
-
At-sea distribution and scale-dependent foraging behaviour of petrels and albatrosses: a comparative study.J Anim Ecol. 2007 Jan;76(1):9-19. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2006.01186.x. J Anim Ecol. 2007. PMID: 17184348
-
Confounding factors in the detection of species responses to habitat fragmentation.Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2006 Feb;81(1):117-42. doi: 10.1017/S1464793105006949. Epub 2005 Dec 1. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2006. PMID: 16318651 Review.
Cited by
-
Application of lidar to assess the habitat selection of an endangered small mammal in an estuarine wetland environment.Ecol Evol. 2024 Feb 1;14(2):e10894. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10894. eCollection 2024 Feb. Ecol Evol. 2024. PMID: 38314315 Free PMC article.
-
African elephants adjust speed in response to surface-water constraint on foraging during the dry-season.PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e59164. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059164. Epub 2013 Mar 15. PLoS One. 2013. PMID: 23554989 Free PMC article.
-
Land use drives differential resource selection by African elephants in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, Kenya.Mov Ecol. 2024 Feb 1;12(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s40462-023-00436-8. Mov Ecol. 2024. PMID: 38303081 Free PMC article.
-
Seasonal habitat use by Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Mole National Park of Ghana.Ecol Evol. 2017 Apr 18;7(11):3784-3795. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2962. eCollection 2017 Jun. Ecol Evol. 2017. PMID: 28616175 Free PMC article.
-
Wild Bird Densities and Landscape Variables Predict Spatial Patterns in HPAI Outbreak Risk across The Netherlands.Pathogens. 2022 May 6;11(5):549. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11050549. Pathogens. 2022. PMID: 35631070 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources