Resized Image using AI by SFLORG Source: Radboud University Nijmegen |
The movement of elephants through wildlife corridors is directly impacted by differing forms of human pressures and development, new research by Elephants Without Borders (EWB) and Radboud University shows. Their study, published today in Frontiers in Conservation, is the first that takes an in-depth look at how varying land-use affects elephants and their use of wildlife corridors.
From 2012 to 2019, the researchers monitored elephants' movements through six wildlife corridors using of motion-detected camera traps in two different human-dominated landscapes: the townships of Kasane and Kazungula, and the farming villages of the Chobe Enclave, both located in the Chobe District.
The study shows that various land-use seemingly affects when elephants use wildlife corridors on an hourly basis. Elephants in agricultural areas largely moved through the corridors predominantly nocturnally, when humans are less active, compared to the urban corridors, where humans and elephants actively mostly overlap.