For African elephants, the largest terrestrial animal currently walking the planet, finding food efficiently is important for survival. These endangered species of pachyderm must Eat low-calorie vegetation over 330 pounds per day To maintain yourself. But how they find the best way to get their green remains elusive. Data from over 150 elephants found that they were planning their journey based on both resource availability and energy costs. For more information about the survey results, please see Research published on March 26th Journal of Animal Ecology And we show how every step is important to these kind giants.
“These new results have important implications for assessing and planning measures of conservation and recovery, such as dispersed corridors, by explicitly explaining the energy costs of travel, as well as emilio Berti, research co-author and ecologist at German Centre for Integrated Biodiversity Research (IDIV) and Friedrich Schiller’s Jennai Yaliz Gennagena. said in a statement.
All the steps you take
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) Critical and endangered savanna elephants in Africa (Loxodonta africana) It is on the verge of extinction. As increased human activity has further fragmented habitats, it is important to understand how it moves across the landscape to design a better conservation strategy. They can Travel 31-121 miles in a dayhowever, the key drivers behind the movement of the elephant over this often harsh terrain were less clear.
With this New researchscientists from Oxford University in the UK, IDIV, and Jena, Friedrich Schiller University in Germany, used GPS tracking data for 157 African elephants in northern Kenya. Data was collected by the conservation organization Save the elephant From 1998 to 2020.
Data show that elephants strongly prefer landscapes with low travel costs. About 94% Among the elephants in the study, we avoided rough terrain and steep slopes. According to the team, this suggests that animals are aware of their surroundings and are making cost-effective decisions on the most energy-efficient passes.
Elephants also actively select areas with high vegetation productivity. 93% show that they prefer to turn A more resource-rich environment.
Similarly, water sources play an important role in where you go. However, individual elephants may respond differently to water. Some stay nearby, others roam even further away. This shows that their movement choices are much more complicated than simply moving to the nearest body of water.
In terms of speed, it has been shown that moving at slower speeds will further avoid difficult and more energetically cost-like terrain. About 74% Of the individual elephants, these rough or steep areas were avoided when moving slowly. This number jumped to 87% when moving at intermediate speeds and 93% when moving faster. Elephants look like they are Carefully balance both effort and energy efficiency over a long journey.
According to the teamThis behavior is comparable to birds that appear to intentionally use preferred thermal ridges to reduce the energy costs of flight.
Enter EnerScape
To analyze tracking data, the team A modeling method called EnerScape. The program estimates the energy costs of movement based on animal weight and topographic slopes. By combining these estimates with satellite data on vegetation productivity and water availability in the region, the team has built a detailed energy landscape that will help better explain elephant decisions regarding where to travel.
A statistical approach called Step Selection Function It was also used to assess how these particular elephants chose to take. This technique compared the places the elephants actually visited with other nearby areas they had actually chosen, but in the end it was not. In doing so, the team identified which environmental factors could play a role in elephant movement determination and habitat selection.
[ Related: African elephants use name-like calls to address each other. ]
“Save as much energy as possible”
These new findings could help conservationists design protected areas and mobile corridors to reduce conflict with humans. Furthermore, the team suggests that conservation strategies need to explain these individual differences in habitat preferences, particularly with regard to water access.
Understanding these results can also help predict how elephant movements will respond to climate change. Increased temperatures and changes in rain patterns affect both the energy costs of transportation and the availability of food and water.
In future researchthe team aims to improve the energy landscape model by adding the effects of climate change on seasonal changes, human disturbances, and elephant movements to the model.
“While a full understanding of how elephants use their habitats requires more in-depth research, this study identifies the central decision-making factors for traveling with elephants,” said research co-authors and university of Fritz Vollrath, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University. said in a statement. “We’ll save as much energy as possible.”
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