Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) has been increasingly invoked in biodiversity monitoring and conservation efforts. Although methods involving LEK have become more widespread in ecology, it remains an undervalued source of information in understanding the ecology of wildlife in the context of human-...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Erin K. Buchholtz, Lee A. Fitzgerald, Anna Songhurst, Graham P. McCulloch, Amanda L. Stronza
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Resilience Alliance 2020
Materias:
lek
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/9a687c863da54a079b595c7bf2d0aeb0
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
id oai:doaj.org-article:9a687c863da54a079b595c7bf2d0aeb0
record_format dspace
spelling oai:doaj.org-article:9a687c863da54a079b595c7bf2d0aeb02021-12-02T18:04:53ZExperts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict1708-308710.5751/ES-11979-250426https://doaj.org/article/9a687c863da54a079b595c7bf2d0aeb02020-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss4/art26/https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087Local ecological knowledge (LEK) has been increasingly invoked in biodiversity monitoring and conservation efforts. Although methods involving LEK have become more widespread in ecology, it remains an undervalued source of information in understanding the ecology of wildlife in the context of human-wildlife conflict. People who regularly interact with wildlife, and often with notable consequences, as is the case with human-wildlife conflict, will likely build up ecological knowledge of that species. We gathered LEK on the landscape use of the African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) in a region where its range overlaps with human land use and results in conflict, the western Okavango Panhandle of Botswana. We interviewed community-defined local experts and used participatory ranking activities to gather information on landscape use of elephants. The scores from the rankings were then incorporated with environmental data following resource selection function methods common in ecology. The resulting LEK-based model had high predictive ability for elephant locations when modeled at a local scale (25 km, Spearman's rho = 0.98, P < 0.0001). We also calculated resource selection models using elephant telemetry data combined with the same environmental data as the LEK models. These models showed a complementary pattern, with better predictive ability at the regional scale (Spearman's rho = 0.98, P < 0.0001) than at the local scale (rho = 0.92, P < 0.0031). In addition to being used for the resource selection functions, each method provided different kinds of information on elephant landscape use. Our results support the use of LEK as a tool for understanding local patterns of wildlife landscape use in the context of human-wildlife conflict, where the knowledge can be used to complement other data across scales and the use of which can itself contribute to better conservation outcomes.Erin K. BuchholtzLee A. FitzgeraldAnna SonghurstGraham P. McCullochAmanda L. StronzaResilience Alliancearticleafrican elephantbotswanahuman-elephant conflictlekresource selection functionBiology (General)QH301-705.5EcologyQH540-549.5ENEcology and Society, Vol 25, Iss 4, p 26 (2020)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic african elephant
botswana
human-elephant conflict
lek
resource selection function
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Ecology
QH540-549.5
spellingShingle african elephant
botswana
human-elephant conflict
lek
resource selection function
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Ecology
QH540-549.5
Erin K. Buchholtz
Lee A. Fitzgerald
Anna Songhurst
Graham P. McCulloch
Amanda L. Stronza
Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
description Local ecological knowledge (LEK) has been increasingly invoked in biodiversity monitoring and conservation efforts. Although methods involving LEK have become more widespread in ecology, it remains an undervalued source of information in understanding the ecology of wildlife in the context of human-wildlife conflict. People who regularly interact with wildlife, and often with notable consequences, as is the case with human-wildlife conflict, will likely build up ecological knowledge of that species. We gathered LEK on the landscape use of the African elephant (Loxodonta Africana) in a region where its range overlaps with human land use and results in conflict, the western Okavango Panhandle of Botswana. We interviewed community-defined local experts and used participatory ranking activities to gather information on landscape use of elephants. The scores from the rankings were then incorporated with environmental data following resource selection function methods common in ecology. The resulting LEK-based model had high predictive ability for elephant locations when modeled at a local scale (25 km, Spearman's rho = 0.98, P < 0.0001). We also calculated resource selection models using elephant telemetry data combined with the same environmental data as the LEK models. These models showed a complementary pattern, with better predictive ability at the regional scale (Spearman's rho = 0.98, P < 0.0001) than at the local scale (rho = 0.92, P < 0.0031). In addition to being used for the resource selection functions, each method provided different kinds of information on elephant landscape use. Our results support the use of LEK as a tool for understanding local patterns of wildlife landscape use in the context of human-wildlife conflict, where the knowledge can be used to complement other data across scales and the use of which can itself contribute to better conservation outcomes.
format article
author Erin K. Buchholtz
Lee A. Fitzgerald
Anna Songhurst
Graham P. McCulloch
Amanda L. Stronza
author_facet Erin K. Buchholtz
Lee A. Fitzgerald
Anna Songhurst
Graham P. McCulloch
Amanda L. Stronza
author_sort Erin K. Buchholtz
title Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
title_short Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
title_full Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
title_fullStr Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
title_full_unstemmed Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
title_sort experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict
publisher Resilience Alliance
publishDate 2020
url https://doaj.org/article/9a687c863da54a079b595c7bf2d0aeb0
work_keys_str_mv AT erinkbuchholtz expertsandelephantslocalecologicalknowledgepredictslandscapeuseforaspeciesinvolvedinhumanwildlifeconflict
AT leeafitzgerald expertsandelephantslocalecologicalknowledgepredictslandscapeuseforaspeciesinvolvedinhumanwildlifeconflict
AT annasonghurst expertsandelephantslocalecologicalknowledgepredictslandscapeuseforaspeciesinvolvedinhumanwildlifeconflict
AT grahampmcculloch expertsandelephantslocalecologicalknowledgepredictslandscapeuseforaspeciesinvolvedinhumanwildlifeconflict
AT amandalstronza expertsandelephantslocalecologicalknowledgepredictslandscapeuseforaspeciesinvolvedinhumanwildlifeconflict
_version_ 1718378701176963072