African elephants' effect on the temporal use of elephant highway by predator and prey. Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.

Sammanfattning: African savanna elephants (Loxondonta africana) are the world’s largest land-mammal and are considered a keystone species. The effect they have on vegetation and their environment is well known, but their effect on other animal species is less studied. Knowledge about a species and its effect on other species is important for both conservation work and human-wildlife conflict management. This study investigates how elephant presence on so-called elephant highways affects the presence of other herbivore species as well as predator species. Additionally, it examines if the elephants are used as predation avoidance by other herbivores. This is done using approximately four years of data from camera traps that were set up along the elephant highways near the Boteti River in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park in Botswana. The herbivore species included in the study were giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), and impala (Aepyceros melampus). The predators were investigated as a group (consisting of the five largest African predator species). Lions (Panthera leo) were also examined, separately from the other predators. Logistic regression models testing the presence of each of the herbivore species on the elephant highways against the presence of elephants and predators showed that elephants affected the presence of giraffes positively, while the presence of kudu and impala were unaffected. The presence of predators was almost exclusively non-significant, although almost none of the herbivore species were caught on the camera traps close in time to a predator. Logistic regression models testing predator presence against elephant presence showed no significant effect of elephant presence on predator presence. The study shows that larger herbivores such as giraffes tend to be drawn to elephants, but further studies need to be done to better investigate the elephants’ effect on the smaller herbivores and the predators.