2024-03-28T16:52:52Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/2111402021-12-28T15:53:36Zcom_10261_13com_10261_8col_10261_266
Abundance, density, and social structure of African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in a human-modified landscape in southwestern Gabon
Brand, Colin M.
Johnson, Mireille B.
Parker, Lilian D.
Maldonado, Jesús E.
Korte, Lisa
Vanthomme, Hadrien
Alonso, Alfonso
Ruiz-López, María José
Wells, Caitlin P.
Ting, Nelson
Population monitoring is critical to effective conservation, but forest living taxa can be difficult
to directly observe. This has been true of African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis),
for which we have limited information regarding population size and social behavior despite
their threatened conservation status. In this study, we estimated demographic parameters
using genetic capture-recapture of forest elephants in the southern Industrial Corridor of the
Gamba Complex of Protected Areas in southwestern Gabon, which is considered a global
stronghold for forest elephants. Additionally, we examined social networks, predicting that
we would find matrilineal structure seen in both savanna and forest elephants. Given 95%
confidence intervals, we estimate population size in the sampled area to be between 754
and 1,502 individuals and our best density estimate ranges from 0.47 to 0.80 elephants per
km2. When extrapolated across the entire Industrial Corridor, this estimate suggests an elephant
population size of 3,033 to 6,043 based on abundance or 1,684 to 2,832 based on
density, approximately 40–80% smaller than previously suggested. Our social network analysis
revealed approximately half of network components included females with different
mitochondrial haplotypes suggesting a wider range of variation in forest elephant sociality
than previously thought. This study emphasizes the threatened status of forest elephants
and demonstrates the need to further refine baseline estimates of population size and
knowledge on social behavior in this taxon, both of which will aid in determining how population
dynamics in this keystone species may be changing through time in relation to increasing
conservation threats.
Peer reviewed
2020-05-12T08:37:34Z
2020-05-12T08:37:34Z
2020
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
PLoS ONE, 15(4): e0231832 (2020)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/211140
10.1371/journal.pone.0231832
32348354
en
Publisher's version
https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231832
Sí
open
Public Library of Science