Human settlements and wildlife distribution in the southern Kalahari of Botswana

Verlinden, Alex

doi:10.1016/s0006-3207(96)00156-5

Cited by 36 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Avoidance by reindeer/caribou in the range of 4 -10 km has been recorded in relation to roads, pipelines, cabin resorts, and power transmission lines during spring and winter (Helle and Särkelä, 1993;Cameron et al, 1995;Cameron and Ver Hoef, 1996;Nellemann andCameron, 1996, 1998;Vistnes, 1999; this study). Avoidance behaviour is also known from other continents and species, e.g., wildlife in Africa (Verlinden, 1997). However, during warm summer days with heavy insect harassment, caribou can travel through zones with elevated roads, pads, or pipelines to move to insect relief habitat, or to select elevated, more windy sites in an otherwise flat landscape (Pollard et al, 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, attention has increasingly been focused on so-called avoidance behavior (Cameron et al, 1979(Cameron et al, , 1992(Cameron et al, , 1995Nellemann, 1997;Nellemann and Cameron, 1998). Wildlife may travel through zones of development, but greatly reduce their use of areas within or near sources of disturbance, thereby reducing optimal foraging or fledging success or increasing risks of predation (Hockin et al, 1992;Reijnen et al, 1995;Cameron and Ver Hoef, 1996;Rodway et al, 1996;Fox and Madsen, 1997;Lord et al, 1997;Verlinden, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cumulative Impacts of Tourist Resorts on Wild Reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</i>) during Winter

Nellemann¹,

Jordhøy²,

Støen³

et al. 2000

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. Potential avoidance by wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) of high-altitude tourist resorts during winter was investigated in and near Rondane National Park in Norway. Distribution of reindeer was mapped using systematic snowmobile surveys during 1991-96 and compared with results from investigations of snow and vegetation characteristics. Maternal reindeer avoided a 10 km zone around the resort. Cows and calves increased in density from 0.6 ± 0.6 reindeer km -2 at 5-10 km from the resort to 7.6 ± 2.2 reindeer km -2 at 15-25 km from the resort. Bulls and yearlings were more tolerant, constituting nearly 92% of all observed animals 5-10 km from the resort. Nearly all animals avoided the zone within 5 km of the resort. There were no significant differences in distribution of lichen heath, hardness of snow, integrated ram hardness index (IRH) values, or snow depths on ridges with increasing distance from the resort. Available biomass of lichens was ca. 1200 g m -2 0-5 km from the resort and decreased to a low of ca. 250 g m -2 at 15-25 km distance, a pattern that probably reflects overgrazing as a result of avoiding the tourist resort. Such avoidance implies reduced forage intake during winter, substantial reduction in available habitat, and lower productivity of the herd. The results suggest that avoidance by wild animals of sources of anthropogenic disturbance may involve long-term impacts, such as reductions in carrying capacity, that are more serious than those expected from direct physiological stress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative Impacts of Tourist Resorts on Wild Reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</i>) during Winter

Nellemann¹,

Jordhøy²,

Støen³

et al. 2000

ARCTIC

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“…Consequently, declining savanna rangelands and sedentarization of pastoralists (Kimani and Pickard 1998;Homewood et al 2001;Lamprey and Reid 2004;Western et al 2009) as well as the associated expansion of settlements and the cultivation and intensification of livestock grazing could fundamentally modify the spatial distributions and movement patterns of herbivores and heighten competition between livestock and wildlife (Prins and Olff 1998). This could accelerate the degradation and fragmentation of rangelands and cause declines in wild herbivore populations (Verlinden 1997;Serneels et al 2001). If such savannah habitats are utilized by both hippos and livestock, they may be expected to compete for limiting grazing resources, especially close to water points.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

et al. 2011

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Riparian savanna habitats grazed by hippopotamus or livestock experience seasonal ecological stresses through the depletion of herbaceous vegetation, and are often points of contacts and conflicts between herbivores, humans and their livestock. We investigated how hippopotamus and livestock grazing influence vegetation structure and cover and facilitate other wild herbivores in the Mara region of Kenya. We used 5 km-long transects, each with 13 plots measuring 10 9 10 m 2 , and which radiate from rivers in the Masai Mara National Reserve and adjoining community pastoral ranches. For each plot, we measured the height and visually estimated the percent cover of grasses, forbs, shrubs and bare ground, herbivore abundance and species richness. Our results showed that grass height was shortest closest to rivers in both landscapes, increased with increasing distance from rivers in the reserve, but was uniformly short in the pastoral ranches. Shifting mosaics of short grass lawns interspersed with patches of medium to tall grasses occurred within 2.5 km of the rivers in the reserve in areas grazed habitually by hippos. Hence, hippo grazing enhanced the structural heterogeneity of vegetation but livestock grazing had a homogenizing effect in the pastoral ranches. The distribution of biomass and the species richness of other ungulates with distance from rivers followed a quadratic pattern in the reserve, suggesting that hippopotamus grazing attracted more herbivores to the vegetation patches at intermediate distances from rivers in the reserve. However, the distribution of biomass and the species richness of other ungulates followed a linear pattern in the pastoral ranches, implying that herbivores avoided areas grazed heavily by livestock in the pastoral ranches, especially near rivers.

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“…This heterogeneity, in turn, is shaped in a reciprocal way by landscape features, in particular, by human settlement and by the availability of water. In semiarid savannas of East Africa, distance from water (Western 1975, Owen-Smith 1996, Verlinden 1997, de Leeuw et al 2001, Redfern et al 2003; J. O. Ogutu, R. S. Reid, H.-P. Piepho, M. E. Rainy, R. Kruska, J. S. Worden, M. Nyabenge, and N. T. Hobbs, unpublished manuscript) and settlements (Verlinden 1997, Verlinden et al 1998, Turner and Hiernaux 2002) exert a controlling influence on the distribution of livestock and wild ungulates. It follows that understanding how water and human settlements affect the distribution and abundance of livestock and wild ungulates in protected and pastoral arid systems is important to developing effective decisions and policies for sustainable livestock production and wildlife conservation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large herbivore responses to water and settlements in savannas

Ogutu

Piepho

Reid

et al. 2010

Ecological Monographs

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Abstract. Sustaining wildlife and pastoral communities in savannas worldwide depends on understanding how landscapes provide for their needs. The composite effects of multiple forces shape herbivore distribution in savannas. We propose a model describing the distribution of animal density along two resource utilization gradients. The model estimates where animals are most abundant in relation to water and pastoral settlements and how strongly they respond to these gradients, as indicated by the location of peak densities in landscape space and degree of attraction of animals to these locations. We use the model to show that distances to water and settlements interactively influence the distribution of wild herbivore and livestock densities in a semiarid protected and pastoral African savanna. The herbivores were distributed along distance from water and settlement gradients according to four distinct patterns, suggesting the preponderance of constrained foraging. The impact of distance to water and settlement on herbivore distribution was modified by land use type and temporal variation in rainfall, and also varied among different species of wildlife and between wildlife and livestock. Wild herbivores peaked in density farther from settlements than from water and were much more strongly attracted to their points of maximum density in the pastoral than in the protected land. The point of maximum density was farther removed from settlements in the protected than in the pastoral landscape where the wild herbivores were compressed into smaller suitable habitats. The interaction between distances from settlement and water produced discernible spatial segregation among species in terms of the locations of their points of maximum density, presumably to minimize interspecific competition for forage and water. Settlements exerted relatively stronger influence on livestock distribution than water, resulting in densities that declined exponentially away from settlements at all distances from water.

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Human settlements and wildlife distribution in the southern Kalahari of Botswana

Cited by 36 publications

References 9 publications

Cumulative Impacts of Tourist Resorts on Wild Reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</i>) during Winter

Cumulative Impacts of Tourist Resorts on Wild Reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus tarandus</i>) during Winter

Hippopotamus and livestock grazing: influences on riparian vegetation and facilitation of other herbivores in the Mara Region of Kenya

Large herbivore responses to water and settlements in savannas

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