Exploring the use of acoustics as a tool in male elephant/human conflict mitigation

Abstract

Elephant/human conflict mitigation solutions have been explored with varying degrees of success. We present findings on a potential acoustic tool to reduce negative outcomes of male elephants entering agricultural areas in the region northeast of Etosha National Park, Namibia. We monitored elephant traffic within and outside the park boundary using GPS collars on five male elephants with known hormonal status as well as information on the frequency and location of fence breaks. Male elephants in the hormonal state of musth have an increased range, often extending outside the protected area. We explored the feasibility of attracting musth males away from potential conflict areas noninvasively, using estrus calls. We played back estrus calls to known individual subadult (n = 9) and adult musth (n = 9) and nonmusth (n = 6) male elephants and show that adult musth and subadult nonmusth males were much more likely to respond and approach the source than nonmusth adult males (p = 0.029 and p = 0.009, respectively) with an equal level of intensity (p = 0.822). Our findings suggest that the use of acoustics may serve as an effective tool in noninvasive male elephant/human conflict mitigation, depending on the age and hormonal status.