Higher than expected growth rate of the Endangered West African giraffe<i>Giraffa camelopardalis peralta</i>: a successful human–wildlife cohabitation

Suraud, Jean-Patrick; Fennessy, Julian; Bonnaud, Elsa; Issa, A.M.; Fritz, Hervé; Gaillard, Jean‐Michel

doi:10.1017/s0030605311000639

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The Park and its surroundings are characterized by a long wet season, lasting from April to November and a short dry season from December to March, governed by the movements of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ; Jones, 1998). Berry, 2013;Carter, Seddon, Frere, Carter, & Goldizen, 2013;Fennessy, 2004;Suraud et al, 2012).…”

Section: Aerial Surveysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure and spatial ecology of Kordofan giraffe in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

D'haen

Fennessy

Stabach

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Population numbers of Kordofan giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum) have declined throughout its range by more than 85% in the last three decades, including in the isolated easternmost population found in the Garamba National Park (NP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We provide new data on the conservation status and ecology of Kordofan giraffe in Garamba NP, specifically on the current population dynamics, distribution patterns, and spatial ecology for informed conservation management decisions. Data were gathered between September 26, 2016, and August 17, 2017, through direct observation and from eight GPS satellite collars deployed in early 2016. Movements, distribution patterns, and autocorrelated kernel density home ranges were estimated using the Continuous‐Time Movement Modeling (CTMM) framework. We then compared results with home ranges calculated using the kernel density estimation (95% KDE) method. The Garamba NP population was estimated to be 45 giraffe with a female‐dominated sex ratio (35% males; 65% females), and adult‐dominated age class ratio (11.2% juveniles; 17.7% subadults; 71.1% adults). The giraffe's distribution was limited to the south‐central sector of the Park, and giraffe were divided over different areas with some degree of connectivity. The average giraffe home range size was 934.3 km2 using AKDE and 268.8 km2 using KDE. Both methods have shown surprisingly large home ranges despite of the relatively high humidity of Garamba NP. Based on the outcomes of this research, urgent conservation action is needed to protect Garamba's remaining giraffe population.

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Section: Aerial Surveysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure and spatial ecology of Kordofan giraffe in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

D'haen

Fennessy

Stabach

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…These studies have improved our understanding of population dynamics of several species, and have allowed the ecological and environmental factors that shape variation in survival to be identified. Longitudinal studies based on individuals have also been used to estimate survival patterns in African ungulates, such as the kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros (Owen-Smith 1990) and the elephant Loxodonta africana (Moss 2001), but only two studies of African ungulates, one on the impala Aepyceros melampus (Gaidet and Gaillard 2008) and one on the giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis (Suraud et al 2012), accounted for imperfect detection by using a CMR method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demography of plains zebras (Equus quagga) under heavy predation

et al. 2015

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In natural ecosystems, ungulate densities show strong temporal variations. The ecological processes driving these fluctuations are complex: food limitation and predation are both important and can interact. Survival rates are central to this debate, but data are sparse for tropical ecosystems. Here, we estimate age-and sex-specific survival rates for plains zebra in Hwange National Park, a nutrient-poor savanna with a high predator-prey ratio. We estimated survival from a detailed Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) monitoring based on 248 individual life histories, for the first time in an African grazer. We controlled for variations in detection probabilities among adult females, which resulted from their social structure. As expected, annual survival was low during the first year (0.441); increased in yearlings (0.560) and peaked at 0.795 and 0.847 in adult males and females respectively. The survival of adult females was lower during the dry season, which probably resulted from higher predation due to predictable movements of zebras to waterholes. Survival at all ages was low compared to ungulates without predators. The demographic model we constructed showed a declining trend (k = 0.94), which was consistent with the data from road counts (k = 0.92). Life Table Response Experiment (LTRE) analyses using the Serengeti and Kruger populations as references showed that the main cause of this declining trend in the Hwange population was low survival in yearling and adult females; low foal survival also contributed. In this ecosystem, predation is likely to be the main ecological process causing low survival, and therefore a decline in the zebra population.

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“…Even though, the situation seems to have improved for some populations (e.g. giraffa [77]; peralta [78]) in the course of enhanced conservation management, population numbers of most subspecies continue to decrease [37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A conservative approach for species delimitation based on multi-locus DNA sequences: a case study of the genusGiraffa(Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla)

Hassanin

Petzold

2019

Preprint

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11Molecular data are now commonly used in taxonomy for delimiting cryptic species. In 12 the case of giraffes, which were treated as a single species (Giraffa camelopardalis) during 13 half of a century, several molecular studies have suggested a splitting into four to seven 14 species, but the criteria applied for taxonomic delimitation were not fully described. 15In this study, we have analysed all multi-locus DNA sequences available for giraffes 16 using multispecies coalescent (MSC: *BEAST, BPP and STACEY), population genetic 17 (STRUCTURE, allelic networks, haplotype network and bootstrapping) and phylogenetic 18 (MrBayes, PhyML, SuperTRI) methods to identify the number of species. Our results show 19 that depending on the method chosen, different taxonomic hypotheses, recognizing from two 20 to six species, can be considered for the genus Giraffa. Our results confirm that MSC methods 21 can lead to taxonomic over-splitting, as they delimit geographic structure rather than species.22 The 3-species hypothesis, which recognizes G. camelopardalis sensu strico, G. giraffa, and G. 23 tippelskirchi, is highly supported by phylogenetic analyses and also corroborated by most 24 population genetic and MSC analyses. The three species show high levels of nucleotide 25 divergence in both nuclear (0.35-0.51 %) and mitochondrial sequences (3-4 %), and they are 26 characterised by 7 to 12 exclusive synapomorphies (ES) detected in nine of the 21 nuclear 27 introns analysed for this study. By contrast, other putative species, such as G. peralta, G. 2 28 reticulata, G. thornicrofti or G. tippelskirchi sensu stricto, do not exhibit any ES in nuclear 29 genes. 30 A robust mito-nuclear conflict was found for the position and monophyly of G. giraffa 31 and G. tippelskirchi, which is explained firstly by a mitochondrial introgression from Masai 32 giraffe to southeastern giraffe during the Pleistocene, and secondly, by gene flow mediated by 33 male dispersal between southern populations (subspecies G.g. giraffa and G.g. angolensis). 34 35 37 38 46 (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1), have been intensively used for species delimitation [3-4]. 47 However, numerous molecular studies have revealed that the mitochondrial tree may deviate 48 from the species tree. Indeed, the maternal inheritance of the mtDNA genome can be 49 misleading for species delimitation because females and males have generally different 50 dispersal behaviours (female philopatry versus male dispersal) [5,6], and because interspecific 51 hybrid females are generally fertile, whereas hybrid males are often sterile (Haldane's rule), 52 facilitating mitochondrial introgression between closely related species [7-9]. To overcome 3 53 these limitations, most recent taxonomic studies dealing with the delimitation between cryptic 54 mammal species have focused on multi-locus datasets [10-12], as the use of multiple 55 independent DNA markers has been shown to provide a strong and reliable signal for 56 deciphering relationships among closely related taxa [13-14]. However, i...

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Higher than expected growth rate of the Endangered West African giraffeGiraffa camelopardalis peralta: a successful human–wildlife cohabitation

Cited by 21 publications

References 33 publications

Population structure and spatial ecology of Kordofan giraffe in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

Population structure and spatial ecology of Kordofan giraffe in Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

Demography of plains zebras (Equus quagga) under heavy predation

A conservative approach for species delimitation based on multi-locus DNA sequences: a case study of the genusGiraffa(Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla)

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