habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
Elephants are megaherbivores (Owen-Smith 1988). They are generalists that can use a variety of food resources (van Aarde et al. 2008). Within South Africa, elephants occur in most habitat types, such as the bushveld regions of the Lowveld and Zululand (KwaZulu-Natal), as well as Eastern Cape thicket habitats extending into the southern Cape forests. Major river systems have been shown to be important for elephant distribution (Gaylard et al. 2003; Smit et al. 2007; Smit & Ferreira 2010), and thus there is some dependence on these linear habitats. Much research has documented their preference for riverine habitats (Viljoen 1987; Smit et al. 2007; Ihwagi et al. 2010) and they concentrate in areas where surface water is available (Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2007; De Knegt et al. 2011). Tampering with the distribution of water through the construction of dams and waterholes will therefore alter the ranging behaviour of elephants (Grainger et al. 2005).Elephants have been translocated across several provinces within South Africa, and now occur in habitat types that may not have formed part of their natural distribution range in the past (Ebedes et al. 1995; Scholes & Mennell 2008). At present, elephants occur in nearly all habitat types within South Africa, but historically were not found year round in certain habitats, such as the Karoo. Elephants may cause habitat degradation in areas where they occur in high densities or where they did not naturally occur (Kerley et al. 2008). Due to the combined effect of fire, increased elephant densities and climate change, vegetation changes such as bush encroachment and tall tree loss is being observed in some areas.
Within South Africa there has been an increase in the number of private game reserves, as well as land expansion programmes by provincial and national conservation bodies. High numbers of restricting fences and intense resource management (for example, artificial water points), have prevented elephants from dispersing across most South African properties and all Swaziland sites (Scholes & Mennell 2008; Vanak et al. 2010). This in turn has had effects on natural population control mechanisms. Additionally, elephants in South Africa have relatively small home ranges compared to those of elephants throughout the rest of the region. In dry areas such as the far western parts of South Africa, where rainfall is relatively low, elephants tend to have larger home ranges than in wetter areas to the east (van Aarde et al. 2008). In KNP, a seven-year movement study including 36 adult elephant cows revealed that elephant clans (cow/calf groups) occupy home ranges to which they are faithful and they do not undertake seasonal âmigrationsâ (Whyte 2001). Elephants tend to concentrate around permanent rivers or other permanent water sources during the dry season, and disperse once the rains commence and surface water becomes available elsewhere. However, such dispersal appears to remain mostly within their home ranges. Adult bulls are generally fairly sedentary within bull areas, but they do disperse quite widely during musth periods. In some areas, elephants have been able to expand their home ranges as fences have been removed (Druce et al. 2008). The establishment of TFCAs has meant that some elephants may now move across international boundaries (Cook et al. 2015; Selier et al. 2014), but these should still be considered to be normal within home range movements and not migrations.
Elephants are capable of occupying diverse habitats because they are physiologically adapted to do so and because their close-knit social structures create platforms for continued learning and adaptation. They are capable of engaging in effective tool-use (Hart et al. 2001) and have passed the mirror self-recognition test as have apes and dolphins (Plotnik et al. 2006). Elephantsâ brains have a relatively large hippocampus compared to primates which may explain their long social and chemical memories (Hakeem et al. 2005). Consequently they can keep track spatially of where other individuals are relative to themselves (Bates et al. 2008), and it has even been shown that elephants can classify subgroups of humans that pose different degrees of danger (Bates et al. 2007). Elephants are known to exhibit concern for deceased individuals or to offer assistance to conspecifics in distress (Douglas-Hamilton et al. 2006). Research has shown that they show higher levels of interest in elephant skulls and ivory than in other natural objects (McComb et al. 2006). We now know that the oldest individuals in a group have enhanced social discrimination and consequently function as important repositories of social knowledge (McComb et al. 2001). Gradually it has become permissible to talk about elephant cognition and the empathy of elephants (Byrne et al. 2008).
Ecosystem and cultural services: Elephants are a keystone species which means that their interactions with other species generate effects that are large relative to their abundance (Carignan & Villard 2002). The African Elephant, specifically, is an ecosystem architect and gardener without parallel. The breaking of trees creates microhabitats for seedlings and small vertebrates and invertebrates. Their dung is a food source for dung beetles and a variety of birds and a dispersal mechanism for many tree species. Even species such as the Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) and the Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum) rely on elephants to create nesting sites in hollows of old dead trees. In the winter months, elephants dig holes in the dry riverbeds to access water, which is then available to all other water-dependent species. Their big feet create pathways through the thickets for other smaller species to follow and even for humans when hiking through the African bush. Through their feeding habits they make browse available for other browsers, maintain structure in savannahs by reducing the tree to grass ratio and create nutrient rich microclimates underneath dead trees. Overall their effect is to increase biodiversity, from mites to mammals.
The elephant is also an umbrella species in that it requires large areas of suitable habitat to maintain viable populations and its requirements for persistence are believed to encapsulate those of an array of associated species (Carignan & Villard 2002). Elephants have vast home ranges and require large intact areas to maintain their populations. By creating areas in which we protect elephants, we ultimately protect many other species that share their habitat with elephants.
And lastly the elephant is a flagship species. These are species that can easily attract public support for conservation and we can piggy back many of our conservation efforts on the back of elephant conservation, especially for those species less likely to attract the publicâs eye (Carignan & Villard 2002). Elephants share many attributes with humans such as their consciousness, their extraordinary communication, good memory, similar lifespan, strong sense of family, their ability to plan into the future and their awareness of death. They raise emotions and topics surrounding bioethics and animal rights to a greater degree than most other creatures (Scholes & Mennell 2008).
Literature on elephants has not only focused on their ecological importance but has placed elephants within various human and cultural views. Hence our attitude towards elephants has ranged from hostile to sympathetic and from economic to ethical over the past 150 years (Carruthers 2010). The importance of ivory has made elephants part of our history for centuries. The Tso Chwan of 548 BC had already remarked that elephants have tusks which lead to the destruction of their bodies as their tusks are seen as gifts. Ancient Egyptians were thought to use ivory as early as 6000 BC. In our present time, elephants are still being slaughtered for their ivory, which has particular cultural value either as objects of prestige in the form of carved statues, family seals or religious artifacts. Live elephants have played pivotal roles as work horses in the timber industry and as modes of transport, as instruments of warfare, as guardians of temples, as objects of sport during trophy hunting or simply as sources of protein when hunted for consumption. With such a diverse array of cultural services, they can be regarded as cultural emissaries of mankind.
