The megaherbivore syndrome: alternative life style or different time frame?

  • Norman Owen-Smith
Chapter
Part of the Perspectives in vertebrate science book series (PIVS, volume 6)

Synopsis

Megaherbivores, i.e. terrestrial large mammals exceeding 1 000 kg, represent one extreme in the r/K selection dichotomy. Features of their faunal contribution, life-history patterns and ecology are compared with those of smaller mammalian herbivores in African savanna biomes. Though limited in species, megaherbivores comprise nearly half of the total biomass of large herbivores. They are supreme generalists in their tolerant feeding habits and wide geographic distribution. Their mean birth intervals, time to sexual maturity and potential longevity are longer than predicted from allometric extrapolations, but exhibit much flexibility. Adult megaherbivores are invulnerable to predation so that populations tend towards saturation densities at which nutrition limits further increase. Population biomass is relatively unaffected by drought periods, while dispersal adjusts populations to changing resource distribution. Megaherbivores exert a major impact on the structure and composition of vegetation. The critical transition at a body mass of 1 000 kg is the decoupling of population processes from the annual seasonal cycle. Megaherbivore species are resilient to climatic and habitat fluctuations, and their disappearance from northern Eurasia, the Americas and Australia at the end of the Pleistocene is ascribed to human predation. Elimination of megaherbivores from these regions had cascading consequences for biotic communities.

Key words

Africa Allometry Demography Elephant Herbivores Giraffe Hippopotamus Rhinoceros Savanna Ungulates 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1989

Authors and Affiliations

  • Norman Owen-Smith
    • 1
  1. 1.Resource Ecology Group, Department of ZoologyUniversity of the WitwatersrandJohannesburgSouth Africa

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