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-...
Guardado en:
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | article |
Lenguaje: | EN |
Publicado: |
Resilience Alliance
2020
|
Materias: | |
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 |