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Elephant conservation is a major priority in southern Africa but urbanisation and habitat loss are restricting these animals to protected areas like game reserves. These animals become genetically isolated, which makes them more susceptible to diseases and environmental changes.
A study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pretoria in South Africa offers a solution by identifying the kind of areas which should be protected to optimise elephant movement across a seven-country region.
The researchers provided a detailed flowchart on how these areas can be identified.
The lead author Alida de Flamingh, had worked on this as a part of her doctoral programme at the Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois, USA.
The team at Illinois used DNA samples from elephant dung and combined the information with GPS tracking data from 80 collared elephants across nearly 54,000 locations. The approach allowed researchers to understand how elephants navigate their environment and the factors that obstruct their movement.
They used the electrical circuit theory to assess the resistances or costs elephants encounter while moving through various habitats like steep slopes, barren areas, densely populated human settlements and distances from water sources.
They identified extremely unsuitable habitats like the vegetation-free Makgadikgadi salt pans in Botswana and densely populated human settlements. They also identified intermediate habitats as tolerable, allowing elephants to navigate through less ideal areas.
The authors of the report suggested that providing connections for elephants that avoid the most unsuitable habitats could also help reduce human-elephant conflicts.
Insights from the study will help governmental authorities and NGOs in southern Africa develop effective conservation strategies.
By understanding how elephants naturally move and live, conservationists can help protect these majestic animals and ensure their long-term survival and health for the future, ultimately helping in ecological balance.
The scale of this study is significant because African elephants have extensive home ranges, roaming up to 11,000 square kilometres (over 2.7 million acres). They often travel long distances to avoid unsuitable habitats, making it essential to capture this vast scale in a single analysis.
“Other research groups have integrated genetic and spatial data before, but usually it’s done on a more local scale. Ours is the first to combine both types of data for southern African elephants across such a large geographic area,” said de Flamingh, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Carl R Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The study draws parallels with the “Room to Roam” initiative in eastern Africa, which hopes to address elephant conservation challenges by creating connected habitats that allow elephants to move freely across borders. The plan, led by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), focuses on securing 12 critical landscapes across southern and eastern Africa, where 330,000 elephants roam, including the vast Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area spanning five countries.
By enhancing connectivity, both these efforts seek to promote biodiversity, genetic diversity and resilience against climate change for Africa's endangered savanna elephants.