Over the last 4 decades, China has undergone major economic development, resulting in considerable impacts on its wildlife populations and habitats. It is essential to quantify the conflict between development and conservation to assist with policy-making because forestry policies and market trends affected indirectly the distribution of Asian elephants. Here, we mapped the historical distribution of elephants versus human land use. Elephant distributions appear to occur in unbroken natural forests only. However, over the 40-year period, the distribution ranges have become smaller and fragmented, with natural forest area also declining by 16%. The monoculture of cash trees is encroaching on natural forests. Over the past 10 years, rubber plantations have become concentrated in the south, with extensive natural forests and scattered rubber farms being converted to tea plantations, due to changes in governmental policies and product prices. Through mapping the spatial changes in the distribution of rubber and tea plantations, our study is expected to help local managers to incorporate the needs of endangered elephants through creating space when planning plantations, especially in Xishuangbanna and the south part of Pu’er. In conclusion, restoring elephant habitat and establishing ecological corridors are critical for the survival of elephants in this region.

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Elephants, the largest terrestrial mega-herbivores, play an important ecological role in maintaining forest ecosystem diversity. While several plant species strongly rely on African elephants (Loxodonta africana; L. cyclotis) as seed dispersers, little is known about the dispersal potential of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). We examined the effects of elephant fruit consumption on potential seed dispersal using the example of a tree species with mega-faunal characteristics, Dillenia indica Linn, in Thailand. We conducted feeding trials with Asian elephants to quantify seed survival and gut passage times (GPT). In total, 1200 ingested and non-ingested control seeds were planted in soil and in elephant dung to quantify differences in germination rates in terms of GPT and dung treatment. We used survival analysis as a novel approach to account for the right-censored nature of the data obtained from germination experiments. The average seed survival rate was 79% and the mean GPT was 35 h. The minimum and maximum GPT were 20 h and 72 h, respectively. Ingested seeds were significantly more likely to germinate and to do so earlier than noningested control seeds (P = 0.0002). Seeds with the longest GPT displayed the highest germination success over time. Unexpectedly, seeds planted with dung had longer germination times than those planted without. We conclude that D. indica does not solely depend on but benefits from dispersal by elephants. The declining numbers of these megafaunal seed dispersers might, therefore, have long-term negative consequences for the recruitment and dispersal dynamics of populations of certain tree species.

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In many parts of South and Southeast Asia, rural farmers living at the borders of protected areas frequently encounter Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) raiding their crops and threatening farmers lives and livelihoods. Traditional deterrent methods often have limited success as elephants become habituated or alternate their movement and behavior. While African bees (Apis mellifera scutellate) have been shown to effectively and sustainably deter African elephants (Loxodonta africana) little is known about their Asian counterparts. We conducted two experiments to estimate the effectiveness of bees as an Asian elephant deterrent method. We analyzed the behavioral reaction of seven captive Asian elephants when confronted with a fence of A. mellifera hives blocking their way to a desired source of food. In addition, we explored the defensive reaction of five A. cerana hives and six A. mellifera hives to an artificial disturbance during both day and night time. The elephants crossed the beehive fence in 51% of the cases, the probability of crossing increased over time and the number of exposures had a significant effect on an elephant's crossing probability, indicating that elephants became habituated to the presence of the beehive fence. In the bee experiment, only one out of five A. cerana hives and one out of six A. mellifera hives reacted to the disturbance during the daytime, while during nighttime, none of them reacted defensively after being disturbed. We, therefore, conclude that neither A. mellifera nor A. cerana bees are likely to be effective in deterring wild Asian elephants from entering crop fields.