Abstract
Multiple land uses including tourism, hunting, and agriculture around protected areas can be a serious complication for wildlife management. We calculated habitat selection indices (Manly's alpha) for 10 bovid species in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in Benin, west Africa, to assess if habitat use differed in each bovid species between hunting and non‐hunting zones. Presence/absence data was used in resource‐selection functions based on a generalized linear mixed effect model to examine factors that explained bovid species distribution. We observed stronger avoidance of open habitat types in the hunting zone than in the non hunting zone for the hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus, oribi Ourebia ourebi, roan Hippotragus equines, kob Kobus kob, Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa and reedbuck Redunca redunca. In contrast, in grey duiker Sylvicapra grimmia, red‐flanked duiker Cephalophus rufilatus, bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus and buffalo Syncerus caffer we found no differences in habitat use between hunted and non‐hunted areas. This may indicate that the latter species show more pronounced ecological and behavioural plasticity. Further, resource selection of bovid species on a small scale was influenced by other factors such as habitat structure, landscape characteristics, and human disturbance. This preliminary assessment of bovid habitat relationships in west Africa suggests that human hunting activities may cause species to alter their habitat selection. We therefore suggest habitat models may need to incorporate this source of variation if they are to accurately predict habitat use or distribution of a species.
Highlights
BioOne Complete is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses
We found a preference for grassland for buffalo, waterbuck, hartebeest, roan, kob and reedbuck in both hunting and non hunting zones
Bushbuck, grey duiker and red-flanked duiker showed a preference for the gallery forest both in the hunting zone and in the non-hunting zone, which for the bushbuck was significantly higher in the hunting zone
Summary
BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. In grey duiker Sylvicapra grimmia, red-flanked duiker Cephalophus rufilatus, bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus and buffalo Syncerus caffer we found no differences in habitat use between hunted and non-hunted areas. This may indicate that the latter species show more pronounced ecological and behavioural plasticity. Resource selection of bovid species on a small scale was influenced by other factors such as habitat structure, landscape characteristics, and human disturbance This preliminary assessment of bovid habitat relationships in west Africa suggests that human hunting activities may cause species to alter their habitat selection. Bovid species experience a variety of anthropogenic influences such as hunting, disturbance from other human activities, and habitat alteration, which have the potential to detrimentally affect populations
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