The population demography of the Maputaland elephants

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Introduction

My study is one of several conducted between 1999 and 2004 in the Maputaland region under the auspices of the University of Pretoria’s Conservation Ecology Research Unit. In this dissertation I focus on the demography of the two principal sub- populations of savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) living in the region. This study uses well established techniques to estimate the sizes of the two sub- populations. The synthesis of this information will contribute to the design of a Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) in the region that will reunite the population fragments and, therefore, enable the population to function as a single entity.
The present chapter puts my study into context with the recent history of the savanna elephants and provide a rationale for this investigation. The Maputaland area of northern KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique has been identified as an important area of biological diversity and is characterised by relatively high levels of endemism (White 1983; van Wyk 1994). In accordance with recent conservation ideologies directed at so called ‘hotspots’ (Myers, Mittermeier, Mittermeier, de Fonseca & Kent 2000), a very high percentage of global terrestrial biodiversity can be protected on a small proportion of the Earth’s land surface (Mittermeier, Myers & Thomsen 1998). As such an area, Maputaland deserves priority attention to afford protection to all its biota.
This area, with the addition of eastern Swaziland, has been identified as an ideal place in which to establish a TFCA which would strive to conserve the biological diversity, increase the level of protection awarded to the area, improve the social and economic welfare of local communities and increase the capacity of the national partners to manage natural resources (van Aarde 1999; Hanks 2001). Its importance is further enhanced as the TFCA would span from mountains to the ocean and so include a great diversity of habitat types. Perhaps the most important biological factor available to allow the TFCA concept to work in this region is the presence of the savanna elephant. The elephant fits the criteria for it to be considered a ‘flagship species’, defined as a species that attracts public interest (Simberloff 1998; Caro & O’ Doherty 1999; Williams, Burgess & Rahbek 2000). Elephants can also be considered a ‘keystone species’, i.e. a species whose importance in its ecosystem’s functioning is far greater than would be expected from its biomass and abundance (Mills, Soulé & Doak 1993; Boswell, Britton & Franks 1998; Caro & O’ Doherty 1999; Jordán, Takács-Sántas & Molnár 1999).
The elephant is an animal of popular interest, is able to generate tourist income and is attractive to funding agencies and donors. Elephants presently occur on both sides of the South Africa/Mozambique frontier in Maputaland and these animals were previously considered as belonging to one population (Hall-Martin 1980, 1992; Klingelhoeffer 1987). Events over the last 20 years have fragmented this population into at least two sub-populations through the construction of electric fences. The existing population fragments are located in the Tembe Elephant Park (TEP) in South Africa and the Maputo Elephant Reserve (MER) in Mozambique. Prior to my study estimates for TEP were 130 elephants, with up to five breeding herds present (although survey techniques used suggested a population far below this figure; see Matthews 2000) and an estimate of 205 elephants for MER (de Boer & Baquete, 1998; de Boer, et al., 2000; Ntumi 2002). These estimates were suspected to be unreliable and very little was known about sex ratios, although they were understood to be heavily male biased in TEP with far more bulls than females (69% of the TEP population was estimated to be adult bulls; KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service 1999). De Boer et al. (2000) stated that the population in MER then comprised mainly of breeding herds with a very low incidence of lone bulls. At the onset of the present study very little reliable information was available, therefore, on population variables such as sex and age structures, fecundity rates and survival schedules.
A study dedicated to elephant demography would, therefore, be a prerequisite for efforts directed at the conservation management of the species in the Maputaland region. Due to changes in the political climate and the cessation of military conflict in Mozambique the situation in the region has changed dramatically. It may now be possible to reunite the two population fragments. The linkage would be provided by the Futi Corridor, an established elephant dispersal route, and would be conducted as part of the proposed TFCA. Although habitat corridors can be species specific and may not stop species loss (Boswell et al. 1998), in the case of Maputaland the proposed corridor is an established elephant route and is large enough to effectively unite TEP and MER sub-populations. The removal of the elephant-proof fence between TEP and the Futi drainage line could effectively reunite the elephant sub- populations and the landscapes in which they occur. It may be possible, therefore, to use the reunification of the elephant population, at species level or fine scale, to ensure the restoration of the Maputo/Futi/Tembe ecosystem at landscape level or coarse scale (Schwartz 1999). As fragmentation of elephant populations is common in southern Africa, I give an outline of the history of fragmentation and its inherent problems.

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Table of Contents :

  • Chapter Introduction
    • The distribution of elephants in the pre-colonial (pre circa 1840) era
    • The distribution of elephants in southern Africa during the colonial period (1840s-1960s)
    • The distribution of elephants in Maputaland
    • The distribution of elephants in the post-colonial era
    • The consequences of fragmentation for elephants
    • Re-connecting fragmented elephant populations
  • Chapter Study Area
    • Introduction
    • Tembe Elephant Park
    • Maputo Elephant Reserve (Reserva dos elefantes do Maputo)
    • The Futi River Corridor
    • The Physical Environment
    • Geography
    • Climate
    • Biodiversity
    • The People
  • Chapter Evaluating historical estimates of population size for the elephants of Maputaland
    • Introduction
  • Chapter Estimating abundance for a savanna elephant population using mark-resight methods: a case study for the Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Study Site
    • Methods
    • Data analyses
    • Closed Population Estimators
    • Open Population Estimators
    • Model Assumptions
    • Analysis
    • Results
    • Population Size
    • Influence of effort on estimates
    • The influence of effort on precision
    • Evaluation of resight models
    • Discussion
  • Chapter The population demography of the Maputaland elephants
    • Introduction
    • Methods
    • Surveys
    • Age determination
    • Deriving population age and sex structures
    • Estimating reproductive variables
    • Estimating age specific survival
    • Observed mortalities
    • Population Growth
    • Intra and inter fragment comparisons
    • Results
    • Demography
    • Observed mortalities
    • Population Growth
    • Discussion
  • Chapter Landscape use by elephants in the Tembe Elephant Park
    • Introduction
    • Materials & Methods
    • Study design
    • Observations of elephants
    • Data analysis
    • Landscape use at the population level
    • Landscape use at the individual level
    • Results
    • Landscape use at the population level
    • Landscape use at the individual level
    • Discussion
  • Chapter Synthesi
    • General Introduction
    • Enumeration of elephant populations
    • Implications of small population size and fragmentation for elephants
    • The recovery of space for elephants
    • The importance of elephants in the landscape
    • References

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