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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Roadless wilderness area determines forest elephant movements in the Congo Basin
PLoS ONE, Volume 3, No. 10, Article e3546, Year 2008
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Description
A dramatic expansion of road building is underway in the Congo Basin fuelled by private enterprise, international aid, and government aspirations. Among the great wilderness areas on earth, the Congo Basin is outstanding for its high biodiversity, particularly mobile megafauna including forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). The abundance of many mammal species in the Basin increases with distance from roads due to hunting pressure, but the impacts of road proliferation on the movements of individuals are unknown. We investigated the ranging behaviour of forest elephants in relation to roads and roadless wilderness by fitting GPS telemetry collars onto a sample of 28 forest elephants living in six priority conservation areas. We show that the size of roadless wilderness is a strong determinant of home range size in this species. Though our study sites included the largest wilderness areas in central African forests, none of 4 home range metrics we calculated, including core area, tended toward an asymptote with increasing wilderness size, suggesting that uninhibited ranging in forest elephants no longer exists. Furthermore we show that roads outside protected areas which are not protected from hunting are a formidable barrier to movement while roads inside protected areas are not. Only 1 elephant from our sample crossed an unprotected road. During crossings her mean speed increased 14-fold compared to normal movements. Forest elephants are increasingly confined and constrained by roads across the Congo Basin which is reducing effective habitat availability and isolating populations, significantly threatening long term conservation efforts. If the current road development trajectory continues, forest wildernesses and the forest elephants they contain will collapse. © 2008 Blake et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s001.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s002.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s003.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s004.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s005.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s006.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s007.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s008.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s009.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s010.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s011.tif
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2570334/bin/pone.0003546.s012.tif
Authors & Co-Authors
Blake, Stephen
United States, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society
United States, St. Louis
University of Missouri-st. Louis
Germany, Pocking
Max-planck-institut Für Ornithologie
Deem, Sharon Lynn
United States, St. Louis
University of Missouri-st. Louis
United States, St Louis
Wildcare Institute
Strindberg, Samantha
United States, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society
Maisels, Fiona G.
United States, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society
Momont, Ludovic R.W.
France, Paris
Museum National D'histoire Naturelle
Inogwabini, Bila Isia
United Kingdom, Canterbury
University of Kent
Douglas-Hamilton, Iain
Kenya, Nairobi
Save the Elephants
United Kingdom, Oxford
University of Oxford
Karesh, William B.
United States, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society
Kock, M. D.
United States, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society
Statistics
Citations: 187
Authors: 9
Affiliations: 8
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0003546
e-ISSN:
19326203
Study Locations
Congo