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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
What limits the Serengeti zebra population?
Oecologia, Volume 140, No. 3, Year 2004
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Description
The populations of the ecologically dominant ungulates in the Serengeti ecosystem (zebra, wildebeest and buffalo) have shown markedly different trends since the 1960s: the two ruminants both irrupted after the elimination of rinderpest in 1960, while the zebras have remained stable. The ruminants are resource limited (though parts of the buffalo population have been limited by poaching since the 1980s). The zebras' resource acquisition tactics should allow them to outcompete the ruminants, but their greater spatial dispersion makes them more available to predators, and it has been suggested that this population is limited by predation. To investigate the mechanisms involved in the population dynamics of Serengeti zebra, we compared population dynamics among the three species using demographic models based on age-class-specific survival and fecundity. The only major difference between zebra and the two ruminants occurred in the first-year survival. We show that wildebeest have a higher reproductive potential than zebra (younger age at first breeding and shorter generation time). Nevertheless, these differences in reproduction cannot account for the observed differences in the population trends between the zebra and the ruminants. On the other hand, among-species differences in first-year survival are great enough to account for the constancy of zebra population size. We conclude that the very low first-year survival of zebra limits this population. We provide new data on predation in the Serengeti and show that, as in other ecosystems, predation rates on zebras are high, so predation could hold the population in a "predator pit". However, lion and hyena feed principally on adult zebras, and further work is required to discover the process involved in the high mortality of foals. © Springer-Verlag 2004.
Authors & Co-Authors
Grange, Sophie
France, Villiers-en-bois
Centre D’études Biologiques de Chizé Cebc
Duncan, Patrick
France, Villiers-en-bois
Centre D’études Biologiques de Chizé Cebc
Gaillard, Jean Michel
France, Villeurbanne
Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive
Sinclair, Anthony R.E.
Canada, Vancouver
The University of British Columbia
Packer, Craig
United States, Minneapolis
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Hofer, Heribert
Germany, Berlin
Leibniz-institut Für Zoo- Und Wildtierforschung
East, Marion Linda
Germany, Berlin
Leibniz-institut Für Zoo- Und Wildtierforschung
Statistics
Citations: 60
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1007/s00442-004-1567-6
ISSN:
00298549
Research Areas
Sexual And Reproductive Health
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study