Jacob Suzanne Antoinette, De Boer Willem Frederik, De Knegt Henrik Johan, Engelen Cassander Cassijn, Henley Michelle
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group Wageningen University Wageningen the Netherlands.
Elephants Alive Hoedspruit South Africa.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Jun 3;15(6):e71506. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71506. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Understanding the spatial patterns of herbivore habitat use is important for understanding ecological processes and ecosystem management. Past research has mainly focused on explaining herbivore habitat selection, to the extent that environmental variables driving habitat selection can be considered well researched. However, little is known about how environmental variables contribute to patterns of foraging site revisitation, even though revisited sites might represent sites of ecological significance. The increasing elephant population in South Africa is causing a decline in woody species, necessitating insight into elephant habitat use to improve the management of areas in which they occur. This study aimed to gain insight into the spatial patterns of foraging site revisitations by the African elephant (). To achieve this, the non-randomness of the spatial locations of revisited sites in terms of their environmental conditions was assessed. Next, the relations between these environmental variables and the revisitation rate per site were analysed. Lastly, a model was constructed to assess which environmental variables had the largest effect on site revisitations. Ten years of GPS tracking data of elephants in the Greater Kruger Area, South Africa, was used. Environmental variables were obtained from existing data sources. The data were analysed with Kolmogorov tests and linear mixed effects models, using AIC-based model selection. The results indicate that elephants select revisitation sites close to water and at intermediate slopes. Cows also selected revisitation sites with intermediate phosphorus concentrations. Yet, elephants revisited sites at intermediate distances from water and higher phosphorus concentrations more frequently. Moreover, phosphorus is the most important environmental variable influencing the revisitation rate. This study shows that analysing revisitation patterns gives valuable insight into how animals use specific sites within their home range, as the environmental covariates related to the selection of the revisitation sites differ from those related to the revisitation rate.
了解食草动物栖息地利用的空间模式对于理解生态过程和生态系统管理至关重要。过去的研究主要集中在解释食草动物的栖息地选择，以至于驱动栖息地选择的环境变量可被视为已得到充分研究。然而，尽管被重新访问的地点可能具有生态意义，但对于环境变量如何影响觅食地点再次访问的模式却知之甚少。南非大象数量的增加导致木本物种数量减少，因此有必要深入了解大象的栖息地利用情况，以改善对大象栖息地的管理。本研究旨在深入了解非洲象觅食地点再次访问的空间模式。为实现这一目标，评估了再次访问地点的空间位置在环境条件方面的非随机性。接下来，分析了这些环境变量与每个地点再次访问率之间的关系。最后，构建了一个模型来评估哪些环境变量对地点再次访问的影响最大。使用了南非大克鲁格地区大象十年的GPS跟踪数据。环境变量从现有数据源获取。使用基于AIC的模型选择，通过Kolmogorov检验和线性混合效应模型对数据进行分析。结果表明，大象选择靠近水源且坡度适中的再次访问地点。母象还选择磷浓度适中的再次访问地点。然而，大象更频繁地再次访问距离水源适中且磷浓度较高的地点。此外，磷是影响再次访问率的最重要环境变量。这项研究表明，分析再次访问模式能够深入了解动物如何在其活动范围内利用特定地点，因为与再次访问地点选择相关的环境协变量与与再次访问率相关的协变量不同。
