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Cattle select African savanna termite mound patches less when sharing habitat with wild herbivores

Odadi, Wilfred O. ; Charles, Grace K. ; Young, Truman P.

Ecology and evolution, 2018-09, Vol.8 (17), p.9074-9085 [Periódico revisado por pares]

England: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

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  • Título:
    Cattle select African savanna termite mound patches less when sharing habitat with wild herbivores
  • Autor: Odadi, Wilfred O. ; Charles, Grace K. ; Young, Truman P.
  • Assuntos: Bovidae ; Cattle ; Competition ; Ecosystems ; Foraging habitats ; grazing facilitation ; Guilds ; Herbivores ; Landscape ; Landscape preservation ; Livestock ; Livestock production ; livestock–wildlife interactions ; Mounds ; Nutrients ; nutrient‐rich foraging hotspots ; Odontotermes ; Original Research ; resource selection ; Termites ; Wildlife ; Wildlife conservation ; Wildlife habitats ; Wildlife management
  • É parte de: Ecology and evolution, 2018-09, Vol.8 (17), p.9074-9085
  • Notas: Funding information
    The exclosure plots were built and maintained by grants from the James Smithson Fund of the Smithsonian Institution (to A.P. Smith), the National Geographic Society (grants 4691‐91 and 9106‐12) (to T.P. Young), and the National Science Foundation (LTREB BSR 97‐07477, 03‐16402, 08‐16453, 12‐56004, and 12‐56034) (to T.P.Y., K.E. Veblen, and C. Riginos). The rest of the research was funded by grants from International Foundation for Science (grant B/4182‐1 to W.O.O.), the National Science Foundation (GRFP to G.K.C.), and the Jastro‐Shields Scholarship (UC Davis), and the Kenya Long‐term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE; to W.O.O.). We thank Mpala Research Centre and Mpala Conservancy for logistical support, and Frederick Erii, Mathew Namoni, Robert Kibet, Jackson Ekadeli, and Peter Ekai for field assistance. We thank Corinna Riginos and Kari Veblen for providing insightful and valuable comments
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  • Descrição: African savanna termite mounds function as nutrient‐rich foraging hotspots for different herbivore species, but little is known about their effects on the interaction between domestic and wild herbivores. Understanding such effects is important for better management of these herbivore guilds in landscapes where they share habitats. Working in a central Kenyan savanna ecosystem, we compared selection of termite mound patches by cattle between areas cattle accessed exclusively and areas they shared with wild herbivores. Termite mound selection index was significantly lower in the shared areas than in areas cattle accessed exclusively. Furthermore, cattle used termite mounds in proportion to their availability when they were the only herbivores present, but used them less than their availability when they shared foraging areas with wild herbivores. These patterns were associated with reduced herbage cover on termite mounds in the shared foraging areas, partly indicating that cattle and wild herbivores compete for termite mound forage. However, reduced selection of termite mound patches was also reinforced by higher leafiness of Brachiaria lachnantha (the principal cattle diet forage species) off termite mounds in shared than in unshared areas. Taken together, these findings suggest that during wet periods, cattle can overcome competition for termite mounds by taking advantage of wildlife‐mediated increased forage leafiness in the matrix surrounding termite mounds. However, this advantage is likely to dissipate during dry periods when forage conditions deteriorate across the landscape and the importance of termite mounds as nutrient hotspots increases for both cattle and wild herbivores. Therefore, we suggest that those managing for both livestock production and wildlife conservation in such savanna landscapes should adopt grazing strategies that could lessen competition for forage on termite mounds, such as strategically decreasing stock numbers during dry periods. In this study, we assessed for the first time the effects of shared foraging with wild herbivores on selection of termite mounds as foraging patches by cattle in an African savanna. Our findings show that shared foraging with wild herbivores subdues the degree of selection of termite mound patches by cattle. This effect is related to reduced forage availability on termite mounds in the shared areas, as well as to wildlife‐mediated improved forage quality off termite mounds in these areas.
  • Editor: England: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
  • Idioma: Inglês
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  • Realização: ABCD-USP USP   Logos de Redes Sociais: Freepik

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