PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 126: Mammal Ecology: Management, Reproduction, and Food Webs
Thursday, August 11, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 524 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Water and landuse influence elephant movements in Botswana- implications for wildlife management.

Loarie, Scott ^*,1, vanAarde, Rudi², Pimm, Stuart^{1, 2}, ¹ Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Durham, NC, USA² Donservation Ecology Research Unit, Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT- The management of elephants in Southern Africa plays a critical role in the conservation of African biodiversity and the reduction of human elephant conflict. Here, we seek to understand the influence of landscape features and human activity on elephant seasonal movements in order to better inform elephant management. We placed satellite collars on ten elephants in Northern Botswana and collected daily movement observations over the course of a year. We modeled the temporal distribution of water and forage by correlating temporal rainfall data and MODIS normalized vegetation index data with non-temporal elevation and land cover data. We modeled human activity from known village locations and the the spatial distribution of agricultural operations remotely sensed from recent Landsat images. By modeling elephant movements as a stochastic walk across the landscape, we found that elephant movements are seasonally constrained by water and forage availability and are effected year round by the presence of humans. Given the opportunity, elephants will avoid humans. But when elephant movements are constrained by seasonally available resources, elephants and human activities come into conflict.

Key words: animal movement, animal conservation, remote sensing, elephant conservation