African Journal of Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Zoogeographic regionalisation of terrestrial vertebrates of Mozambique","authors":"Carlos M. Bento,&nbsp;Paulo E. Cardoso,&nbsp;Richard D. Beilfuss,&nbsp;Christian T. Chimimba","doi":"10.1111/aje.13248","DOIUrl":"10.1111/aje.13248","url":null,"abstract":"<p>During the formative years of science-based biodiversity conservation and planning, Mozambique was undergoing a prolonged post-colonial liberation struggle (1964–1974) and subsequent civil war (1976–1992), resulting in a profound gap in biodiversity knowledge and conservation planning relative to other countries in the region. This study represents Mozambique's first post-war (1992 to the present) zoogeographic regionalisation at a fine scale, using 20 years of terrestrial vertebrate data comprising 54 species and 27,199 records that cover 53% of the 0.5° grid cells of the country, with 35% of cells having sufficient data for subsequent quantitative analysis. Cluster and Indicator species (IndVal) analysis were used to delimit zooregions and to identify their characteristic species, respectively, while Redundancy analysis was used to relate environmental variables to vertebrate groups. These analyses divided Mozambique into six zooregions (Niassa, Tete, Gilé, Marromeu-Gorongosa, Limpopo-Zinave-Banhine and Maputo). Our study reveals that the zooregions identified are not adequately protected by the current network of protected areas. An expanded network of protected areas is needed to ensure biodiversity conservation in Mozambique.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aje.13248","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139056499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An occupancy analysis of the factors affecting the presence of carnivores at the national park-human community interface in Rwanda","authors":"Eustrate Uzabaho,&nbsp;Noel Kwizera,&nbsp;Jennifer Frances Moore,&nbsp;Donat Nsabimana","doi":"10.1111/aje.13238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13238","url":null,"abstract":"<p>People, livestock and carnivores are constantly interacting especially at the interface between community and protected areas. The carnivore guild category in Volcanoes National Park is important, and if well studied, could lead to additional research opportunities for improved wildlife management. We used single season occupancy models with multi-species data, to understand the factors affecting species occurrence, detection and distribution among native carnivores of Volcanoes National Park while accounting for imperfect detection and the effects of site variables on the observed trends. Our findings showed that six native carnivores use the park edge, where the side-striped jackal (<i>Canis adustus</i>) and serval (<i>Leptailurus serval</i>) are the most widespread with ψ = 0.904 (SE 0.051) and ψ = 0.415 (SE 0.086), respectively, followed by African golden cat (<i>Caracal aurata</i>) with ψ = 0.198 (SE 0.066), while the servaline genet (<i>Genetta servalina</i>), slender mongoose (<i>Herpestes sanguineus</i>) and spotted hyaena (<i>Crocuta Crocuta</i>) have very low probability of occupancy with ψ = 0.087 (SE 0.045), ψ = 0.044 (SE 0.032) and ψ = 0.022 (SE 0.022) respectively. In addition, there is high occurrence of feral dogs and human presence in the park edge. Overall, the occupancy of native carnivores increases as distance from settlements increase (β = 0.559 [SE 0.195]) except for hyaena and mongoose which showed a decrease in occupancy as distance to settlements increased. In general, native carnivores preferred sites located close to pasture areas, compared to areas used for agriculture and agroforestry. High overlapping activity between native carnivores and other wildlife varied greatly between species. This study provides the baseline information for the understanding of native carnivores using the park edge and insights on their interactions with other wildlife, livestock and human activities at the interface between the park and local communities. The co-occurrence of livestock, feral dogs and humans, and native wildlife is a challenge for both wildlife conservation inside the protected area and local communities who might be negatively affected in different ways including interspecific competition, disease exposure and increased conflicts. We anticipate that some of the current livestock keeping are hindered by the challenges of having native carnivores dwelling along the park edge and community interface.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139042430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Movement and space use in three sympatric lacertid lizards (Acanthodactylus): Inter- and intraspecific comparisons","authors":"Douglas A. Eifler,&nbsp;Maria A. Eifler,&nbsp;Makenna Orton,&nbsp;Kaera L. Utsumi,&nbsp;Mohsen Jarray,&nbsp;Ali Zaidi,&nbsp;Mohsen Chammem","doi":"10.1111/aje.13247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13247","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Competition can be keen within and between closely related species but can be reduced when sympatric individuals differ in resource use. To determine how sympatric, closely related species coexist, we examined movement and activity of foraging individuals, developing detailed profiles for males of three species (<i>Acanthodactylus boskianus</i>, <i>A. dumerilii</i> and <i>A. scutellatus</i>) and for female <i>A. boskianus</i> in arid sub-desert steppes of southern Tunisia. All three species were active concurrently with different peak activity times. Males varied markedly in their movement, as did <i>A. boskianus</i> sexes. Interspecifically, male <i>A. boskianus</i> moved most frequently, for the most time, covering the greatest distance and searching the largest area, while male <i>A. dumerilii</i> moved the least often, travelled the shortest distances and intensively searched small areas. <i>Acanthodactylus scutellatus</i> males generally were intermediate between the other species but dug more frequently and had movement rates comparable to <i>A. boskianus</i>. Intraspecifically, <i>A. boskianus</i> females moved less frequently, for a smaller percentage of time, covering shorter distances and searching smaller areas than male <i>A. boskianus</i>. Habitat use varied among species and by sex within <i>A. boskianus</i>. Differences in movement and activity likely reflect differences in resource use that promote coexistence between and within species.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139042421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physiological stress in eastern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli) as influenced by their density, climatological variables and sexes","authors":"Benson Okita-Ouma,&nbsp;Gerrit Gort,&nbsp;Joshua J. Millspaugh,&nbsp;Herbert H. T. Prins","doi":"10.1111/aje.13239","DOIUrl":"10.1111/aje.13239","url":null,"abstract":"<p>It is important to understand the physiological stressors in animals especially for threatened species or intensively managed to improve their conservation and optimise their reproduction. We sought to understand changes in stress hormones (faecal glucocorticoid metabolites) in black rhinoceros (<i>Diceros bicornis michaeli</i>) in relation to population density and sex (intrinsic factors) and plant minerals, rainfall and land surface temperature (extrinsic factors). We used non-invasive faecal sampling techniques on animals of known sex, age and dominance in seven populations of contrasting population densities over 1 year. We measured variability in faecal corticosterone metabolites through radioimmunoassay and related them to population density, sex and faecal calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and potassium as characteristic of plant minerals, rainfall and temperature. We used linear mixed models (LMM) to analyse the data. We did not detect a significant relationship between physiological stress parameters and population density. However, we have indications that stress levels increased as rainfall and temperature increased and were correlated negatively and positively with concentration of faecal phosphorus and copper respectively; we found higher stress levels in females than in males. These results suggest that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors explain the variation in physiological stress observed in black rhinoceros.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aje.13239","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138822590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Population size and conservation status of large terrestrial mammals in a West African protected area","authors":"Umar Lawal Mohammed,&nbsp;Shahrul Anuar Mohd Sah","doi":"10.1111/aje.13241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13241","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Terrestrial large mammals are threatened in West and Central Africa due to trade and consumption. The species population size was estimated using diurnal distance sampling in Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria. Mean species abundance and density ranged from 631 ± 281 to 3320 ± 1163 individuals and 2.0661 ± 1.356 to 6.7525 ± 3.0376 individuals km⁻² between sub-habitat types, and from 258 ± 125 to 2671 ± 867 individuals and 0.9526 ± 0.6801 to 5.1377 ± 1.8988 individual km⁻² between the ranges. Based on IUCN guidelines for local assessment, we classified 1 species as Vulnerable, 10 Near Threatened and 1 Least Concern. Long-term population monitoring and education programmes are crucial.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138739831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anthropogenic effects of habitat modification on anuran species diversity in a swamp forest area, Kenya","authors":"Joseph Musonda Kabanze,&nbsp;Johnstone Kimanzi,&nbsp;Patrick Kinyatta Malonza,&nbsp;Lucas Pius Rutina","doi":"10.1111/aje.13245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13245","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anuran species are some of the good environmental indicators of habitat quality and condition in ecosystems. This is due to their amphibious life modes and sensitivity to environmental change caused by rapid expansion of agricultural activities, advancement of forest destruction, climate change and emerging infectious diseases. Understanding their diversity and distribution patterns is crucial for the development and implementation of effective species and habitat conservation strategies. The study aimed at assessing and comparing anuran biodiversity and distribution patterns between a protected (North Nandi Forest Reserve) and a non-protected area (Kingwal swamp) to provide additional baseline information, both being among the underexplored areas in Kenya. Data were gathered in both dry and wet seasons, between October 2022 and June 2023 by employing standard sampling techniques for anurans(Visual encounter and pitfall traps with a drift fence) to maximise detection. Three habitat types- farmland, intermediate land and forest were exploited. A total of 1649 individuals from 21 different species, belonging to nine different genera and nine different families were recorded. Ptychadenidae was the most abundant family from the recorded anurans, while Dicroglossidae, Arthroleptidae, Pyxicephalidae and Ranidae were the least. High biodiversity was observed in the forest habitat (Protected) and least in the farmland (non-protected). The wet season had high species abundance, diversity and richness compared to the dry season. There was a significant difference (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05) in diversity between the habitats in wet season, but no significance difference during dry season (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05) except for forest and farmland (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). There was a significant difference in species abundance between seasons (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05), and between habitats (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05) in all seasons except for farmland and intermediate (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05), as well as farmland and forest (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05) during the wet season. Habitat type and season had no influence (<i>p</i> &gt; 0.05) on species richness. Anuran biodiversity is a function of habitat diversity and season, with the associated differences in microhabitat structure providing diverse niches and ways of exploring resources. The modest sampling indicates that Kingwal Swamp and North Nandi Forest Reserve are rich and support anuran species, and the differences in anuran biodiversity between the 3 habitats demonstrates that conservation efforts continue to be a priority.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aje.13245","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138739830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pine plantations and native forest fragments adjacent to intact forests provide surrogate habitats for birds in an Afrotropical forest landscape","authors":"Simon Peter Ogola,&nbsp;Enock Ssekuubwa","doi":"10.1111/aje.13242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13242","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Tropical forests harbour 72% of the world's bird species. The changing land uses have fragmented natural forests or replaced them with plantation forests. This sets in an argument as to whether forest fragments and plantations can support birds. We assessed birds in a plantation, fragment and an intact (continuous) Budongo forest, Uganda. We compared bird species composition, diversity and functional traits between the forests and examined their response to habitat characteristics. We sampled birds using 135 point counts along nine transects and assessed habitat characteristics in 90 plots in the fragment and intact forest. We classified bird species according to habitat preference and feeding guild. Bird species composition differed between forests. Bird abundance and richness in plantation and fragment were lower than in intact forest. Forest specialists and insectivores dominated the intact forest. Most birds in the fragment were forest generalists and frugivores. Forest visitors and granivores dominated in the plantation. <i>Trachyphorus purpuratus</i>, <i>Andropadus latirostris</i> and <i>A. curvirostris</i> preferred sites with greater tree height, diameter and many snags, respectively. Bird species abundance and richness declined with increasing tree diameter and increased with snags. Forest specialists preferred sites without climbers. Thus, plantations and fragments close to intact forests provide surrogate habitats for bird conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138739832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seasonal changes in herd size and time budget of springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) in southern Namibia","authors":"Peter Low Cunningham Jr.,&nbsp;Peter Low Cunningham Sr.","doi":"10.1111/aje.13216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13216","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Springbok (<i>Antidorcas marsupialis</i>) is an understudied species with a dearth of scientific work having been conducted, especially so for the Nama-Karoo vegetation type, in southern Namibia. We studied variations in herd composition and time budget of springbok by direct observations during a dry and wet season in southern Namibia and found significant differences (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) in mean herd size between the dry and wet seasons. Herd size decreased from early morning to late afternoon during the dry season (<i>p</i> = 0.037) but not the wet season (<i>p</i> = 0.362). Springbok spent more time browsing during the dry season compared to the wet season (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) when they spent more time grazing (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the time springbok spent walking between the two seasons (<i>p</i> = 0.181). Other energy-intensive activities such as grooming and running increased during the wet season (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) due to favourable environmental conditions, breeding season and possibly an increase in parasite load.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138713736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Space use by African savannah elephants in an arid protected area dominated by a mosaic of different vegetation","authors":"Nobert Tafadzwa Mukomberanwa,&nbsp;Phillip Taru,&nbsp;Beaven Utete","doi":"10.1111/aje.13240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13240","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The African savannah elephant (<i>Loxodonta Africana</i>) migrate in response to limiting environmental factors in arid areas. Using global positioning systems (GPS) telemetry data, we determined: (i) the dominant vegetation types used by African savannah elephants and (ii) the differences in the area occupied by dominant vegetation types in Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) in Zimbabwe. Significant spatiotemporal differences (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05) detected in vegetation types utilised by the African savannah elephant, and in the area covered by vegetation types induced a determinate foraging pattern. Global positioning system telemetry is a smart conservation tool for surveillance of movement patterns of African savannah elephants in protected areas.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138713738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preliminary study of Dent's monkey (Cercopithecus denti) living in a forest fragment in Rwanda, highlighting dietary flexibility in guenons","authors":"Ambrosine Clark,&nbsp;Beth A. Kaplin","doi":"10.1111/aje.13228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13228","url":null,"abstract":"<p><i>Cercopithecus</i> monkeys are a species-rich genus generally considered arboreal frugivores with widespread distribution in sub-Saharan African forests. We studied a largely undocumented species threatened by habitat fragmentation, <i>Cercopithecus denti</i>, during 3 months in 2017 in a small forest fragment of Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda. <i>C. denti's</i> diet was composed of about 58% leaves and 18% fruits. They spent most of their time 10–20 m above ground in secondary forest and open areas. This first systematic study of <i>C. denti</i> shows capacity for a highly folivorous diet, supporting arguments that <i>Cercopithecus</i> have flexible diets, likely enabling persistence in forest fragments.</p>","PeriodicalId":7844,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Ecology","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138713737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}