African Buffalo Movement and Zoonotic Disease Risk across Transfrontier Conservation Areas, Southern Africa

Caron, Alexandre; Cornélis, Daniel; Foggin, Chris; Hofmeyr, Markus; Garine‐Wichatitsky, Michel De

doi:10.3201/eid.2202.140864

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…We observed a global F ST value of 0.0003, leading us to conclude that these herds are not genetically distinct. This result agrees with previously reported behavioral observations of frequent herd switching and long‐distance dispersal in African buffalo (Caron, Cornelis, Foggin, Hofmeyr, & Garine‐Wichatitsky, ; Halley, Vandewalle, Mari, & Taolo, ; Naidoo, Preez, Stuart‐Hill, Beytell, & Taylor, ) and the lack of population differentiation observed in previous work in these herds using microsatellite markers (Lane‐deGraaf et al, ). We therefore consider any effect of “herd” in subsequent analyses as environmental and not reflective of differences in underlying genetic structure.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 93%

Context‐dependent costs and benefits of tuberculosis resistance traits in a wild mammalian host

Tavalire

Beechler

Buss

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Disease acts as a powerful driver of evolution in natural host populations, yet individuals in a population often vary in their susceptibility to infection. Energetic trade‐offs between immune and reproductive investment lead to the evolution of distinct life history strategies, driven by the relative fitness costs and benefits of resisting infection. However, examples quantifying the cost of resistance outside of the laboratory are rare. Here, we observe two distinct forms of resistance to bovine tuberculosis (bTB), an important zoonotic pathogen, in a free‐ranging African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population. We characterize these phenotypes as “infection resistance,” in which hosts delay or prevent infection, and “proliferation resistance,” in which the host limits the spread of lesions caused by the pathogen after infection has occurred. We found weak evidence that infection resistance to bTB may be heritable in this buffalo population (h 2 = 0.10) and comes at the cost of reduced body condition and marginally reduced survival once infected, but also associates with an overall higher reproductive rate. Infection‐resistant animals thus appear to follow a “fast” pace‐of‐life syndrome, in that they reproduce more quickly but die upon infection. In contrast, proliferation resistance had no apparent costs and was associated with measures of positive host health—such as having a higher body condition and reproductive rate. This study quantifies striking phenotypic variation in pathogen resistance and provides evidence for a link between life history variation and a disease resistance trait in a wild mammalian host population.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 93%

Context‐dependent costs and benefits of tuberculosis resistance traits in a wild mammalian host

Tavalire

Beechler

Buss

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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“…However, our study focuses on elephant bulls and adult female buffalo. Individuals from different sex and age classes could perceive the boundary differently as has been recently demonstrated for sub‐adult female buffalo in the Greater Limpopo TFCA that dispersed over long distances outside of protected areas they originated from (Caron et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Water and cattle shape habitat selection by wild herbivores at the edge of a protected area

Valls‐Fox

Chamaillé‐Jammes

Garine‐Wichatitsky

et al. 2018

Animal Conservation

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Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of human-wildlife interfaces is important for the sustainable management of protected areas and wildlife conservation. We investigated the drivers of domestic and wild herbivore habitat selection at the edge of an unfenced protected area adjacent to Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. We used GPS data to quantify the movement patterns of elephant bulls, buffalo and cattle at multiple scales and according to seasonal changes of surface water availability. Cattle, elephant and buffalo prefer open grassland habitats found close to water but elephant and buffalo avoid cattle differently. During the rainy season, cattle enter the protected area daily; buffalo avoid cattle completely at the home range scale, whereas elephant bulls avoid cattle at finer scales by favoring temporal niche shift. Elephant bulls avoid direct encounters with cattle (or people) during the day but come closer to the boundary and to water at night when cattle are kept in enclosures close to the homesteads. During the dry season, when cattle range further into the protected area in search of forage, buffalo and cattle spatial overlap increases as water dependence takes precedence over avoidance. Elephant bulls range closer to the boundary at night and increase the number of excursions into the Communal Area. Cattle herding creates a buffer zone between wildlife areas and human settlements because wild herbivores strongly avoid livestock and people. However, avoidance only lasts as long as resources are abundant. Our study suggests that long-term planning of both artificial water provisioning and traditional cattle herding practices could help maintaining spatial segregation and thus mitigate conservation conflicts such as pathogen transmission, crop raiding or livestock depredation.

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“…GPS telemetry has revealed that female buffalo dispersing between herds could spread pathogens over distances of up to 100 km (Caron et al 2016, Spaan et al 2019. In Zimbabwe, contacts between buffalo and cattle take place mainly at waterholes on the periphery of protected areas during the dry season, where foot-and-mouth disease can potentially be transmitted to the livestock (Miguel et al 2013).…”

Section: What We Knowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GPS telemetry has revealed how ungulate herds can be open to transfers of animals between herd ranges, as well as showing splitting and re-joining among herd members, most notably for buffalo (Winnie et al 2008, Caron et al 2016. Although the home ranges occupied by buffalo herds in Kruger National Park are largely discrete, individual females may disperse between the distinct herds (Spaan et al 2019).…”

Section: What We Knowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Movement ecology of large herbivores in African savannas: current knowledge and gaps

et al. 2020

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1. Nearly 90% of the world's large herbivore diversity occurs in Africa, yet there is a striking dearth of information on the movement ecology of these organisms compared to herbivores living in higher latitude ecosystems. 2. The environmental context for movements of large herbivores in African savanna ecosystems has several distinguishing features. African large herbivores move in landscapes with high spatiotemporal variability, low predictability, seasonal restrictions in surface water as well as food resources, and exposure to a diverse assemblage of competitors, predators, and pathogens. These features influence mobility, diel activity routines, home-range fidelity, and exposure to predation. 3. We review the knowledge that has been gained about the movements of African herbivores from Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry and identify important gaps in knowledge that exist. Topics addressed include seasonal movement patterns, daily activity schedules, space utilisation, water dependency, responses to risks of predation, pathogen transmission, social affiliations, and local population density determination. 4. While the growing number of GPS telemetry studies has addressed a wide range of topics in Africa, they remain fragmentary in terms of places and species represented. Most research has been focussed on three species, and practices for data sharing and analysis should be improved. African landscapes are changing perhaps faster than any other region on Earth, with rapidly expanding human populations, massive infrastructure development projects, and changes in climatic regimes. There is a crucial need to establish relationships between herbivore movements and their changing environments, especially in Africa where most of the world's large herbivore diversity resides.

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African Buffalo Movement and Zoonotic Disease Risk across Transfrontier Conservation Areas, Southern Africa

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

Context‐dependent costs and benefits of tuberculosis resistance traits in a wild mammalian host

Context‐dependent costs and benefits of tuberculosis resistance traits in a wild mammalian host

Water and cattle shape habitat selection by wild herbivores at the edge of a protected area

Movement ecology of large herbivores in African savannas: current knowledge and gaps

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