Abstract
Understanding the relationship between humans and elephants is of particular interest for reducing conflict and encouraging coexistence. This paper reviews the ecological relationship between humans and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, examining the extent of differentiation of spatio-temporal and trophic niches. We highlight the strategies that people and elephants use to partition an overlapping fundamental niche. When elephants are present, forest-dwelling people often build above-the-ground shelters; and when people are present, elephants avoid open areas during the day. People are able to access several foods that are out of reach of elephants or inedible; for example, people use water to leach poisons from tubers of wild yams, use blowpipes to kill arboreal game, and climb trees to access honey. We discuss how the transition to agriculture affected the human–elephant relationship by increasing the potential for competition. We conclude that the traditional foraging cultures of the Malay Peninsula are compatible with wildlife conservation.
Highlights
Received: 14 January 2021Elephants (Order: Proboscidea) evolved some 60 million years ago
With the aim of developing a broad and interdisciplinary understanding of humanelephant interactions, which can help creating a firm basis for measures to conserve elephants in coexistence landscapes, we carried out a review of the literature to identify the main ecological drivers that underpin traditional human–elephant relations in the forests of the Malay Peninsula
Section phants in the rainforests of the Peninsula and the mechanisms used for niche parSection of this paper addresses food resource overlaps between people and eletition
Summary
Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) Project, School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, The University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih, Kajang 43500, Malaysia. Resource Stewardship Consultants Sdn Bhd, 38, Jalan 12/15, Petaling Jaya 46200, Malaysia. Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
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