Dry Season Browse Preference for the Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis): The Case of the Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy (MBRC), Zimbabwe

Abstract

Dry season browse preference for the black rhinoceros ( Diceros bicornis ) was studied at the Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy (MBRC), Zimbabwe, in 2010. Free ranging black rhinos were tracked and 8 687 individual bites were recorded at 131 feeding stations and 616 feeding points. Only 34 plant species accounted for the black rhino diet. Trees contributed much of the diet (52.9%) followed by shrubs (44.0%) and lastly herbs (7.3%), with most of the browse (68.7%) coming from the 1.0-1.5m height category. Early dry season diet was richer and more evenly distributed (34 species, H ' =3.812.) than late dry diet (27 species, H ' =3.413). Acacia nilotica, Acacia karoo, Dichrostachys cineria, Ziziphus mucronata, Lantana camara, Gardenia volkensii and Rhus tenuinervis constituted the principal diet of the rhino, contributing 69.4% and 81.6% of the browse in the early dry and late dry season respectively. In the early dry season L. camara was the most important principal species contributing 32.9% of the browse, scoring the highest proportional usage. (0.33) and was also the most available (0.26), a position that switched onto A nilotica in the late dry season. The restricted diet obtained in the study may encourage wandering of rhinos into unprotected neighbourhoods making them prone to poaching.