A multigenerational perspective on elephant family ranging in Amboseli, Kenya

Abstract

Throughout their range, elephants have substantial ecological and socio-economic impacts and high conservation value; and their ranging patterns and habitat use receive significant research and policy attention. Although relatively small, the elephant population of the Amboseli ecosystem is part of an open population of African savannah elephants, connecting mult-iuse landscapes and protected areas in Kenya and Tanzania.

The study population for the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP) has steadily increased in size over time, largely due to the traditional tolerance of Maasai communities, which has evolved into successful community-led conservation efforts. In this paper, we investigate the ranging patterns of elephant families over the very long term, using encounter data on individually recognized elephants in the central Amboseli study zone to classify stability and shifts of space use over generations. We restricted data to families known to the monitoring team for over 30 years, and classified family range use as Central, Peripheral or Shifting depending on the frequency with which they used the central study zone. Central and Peripheral families were distinguished by time spent in the central zone, with little long-term change. Shifting families showed significant changes (most often declines) in central zone use; average sightings declined from a mean 27.3% to 14.9% of total observation days. We examine family sizes to demonstrate that there was no relationship between family size and ranging strategy. Finally, we present multigenerational collaring data for one family using each strategy. Using these complementary datasets, we show how community-based protection strategies coupled with conservation efforts in Amboseli have enabled elephants to maintain and adapt their ranges.