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Elephant Movements, Abundance, and Use of Water Sources in Kibale National Park, Uganda

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Movement Ecology of Afrotropical Forest Mammals

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Abstract

Large herbivores, such as elephants, have been eradicated from large swaths of their historic ranges due to habitat loss and intense hunting pressure. However, in areas where they are still alive, they frequently engage in conflicts with humans due to crop raiding or because their natural habitats are being fragmented, limiting the natural movements of groups of this species. Three years of camera trap data coupled with records of elephant presence from transects recorded over 23 years reveal complex movement patterns of this species across the Kibale National Park, Uganda. We tested if elephant movement was influenced by seasonal changes, by the presence and distance of mature crops in surrounding farmland, or by rainfall or temperature changes. We describe occupancy rate, detection probability, daily movement habits, and group size and structure when visiting water sources. Elephants showed high probability of occupancy and low detection probability at water sources and potentially preferred water sources near crop fields that are located outside the park. Kibale’s elephants move in small family groups and visit water sources at all times of the day but with a preference for sunset and on days with less rain. Understanding forest-living elephants’ movement is crucial to minimize conflicts between elephants and farmers and to understand the dynamics between elephant herd movement and forest dynamics.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Claire Hemingway and Dipto Sarkar for helpful ideas and comments on this project. We thank Edith Rojas, Martin Mukasa, Patrick Kyaligonza, John Okwuilo, and Jean Pierre d’Huart, for unvaluable help on the field, and to Lizzi Martínez for the map elaboration. RRH thanks the National Geographic through the Committee of Research and Exploration that gave to this project a grant No. 9839-16. RRH also thanks Fondation Segré for funding to investigate wildlife in Kibale National Park through the project “Conservation of Giant Forest Hog in a Set of Protected Areas in Western Uganda” and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur for help to write this chapter. The funding that helped us develop some of these ideas was the IDRC grant “Climate Change and Increasing Human-Wildlife Conflict” to CAC. CAC was supported by the Wilson Center while writing this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biodiversity Conservation, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Campeche, Mexico

    Rafael Reyna-Hurtado

  2. IUCN Wild Pigs Specialist Group, Campeche, Mexico

    Rafael Reyna-Hurtado

  3. African Buffalo Initiative Group and Wild Pig Specialist Group IUCN, Rome, Italy

    Mario Melletti

  4. Giant Forest Hog Project, Kibale National Park, Uganda

    Martin Mukasa

  5. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Patrick A. Omeja

  6. School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK

    David Keeble, Alexander V. Georgiev & Graeme Shannon

  7. Biology Department, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

    Colin A. Chapman

  8. Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Northwest University, Xi’an, China

    Colin A. Chapman

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  1. Rafael Reyna-Hurtado
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  2. Mario Melletti
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  3. Martin Mukasa
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Correspondence to Rafael Reyna-Hurtado .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biodiversity Conservation, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Campeche, Campeche, Mexico

    Rafael Reyna-Hurtado

  2. Biology Department, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

    Colin A. Chapman

  3. Wild Pig Specialist Group, IUCN SSC, African Buffalo Initiative Group IUCN, ASG, Rome, Italy

    Mario Melletti

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Reyna-Hurtado, R. et al. (2023). Elephant Movements, Abundance, and Use of Water Sources in Kibale National Park, Uganda. In: Reyna-Hurtado, R., Chapman, C.A., Melletti, M. (eds) Movement Ecology of Afrotropical Forest Mammals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27030-7_4

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