Seasonal movements and habitat use of African buffalo in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

Annette Roug,Deana L Clifford,Daniel Mathayo,Donald Mpanduji,Rudovick Kazwala,Halima Kiwango,Randy Larsen,Jonna A K Mazet,Epaphras A Muse,Goodluck Paul,Woutrina Smith

doi:10.1186/s12898-020-0274-4

Abstract

BackgroundAssessing wildlife movements and habitat use is important for species conservation and management and can be informative for understanding population dynamics. The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania has been declining, and little was known about the movement, habitat selection, and space use of the population, which is important for understanding possible reasons behind the decline. A total of 12 African buffalo cows from four different herds were collared with satellite transmitters. Movements were assessed over 2 years from 11 animals.ResultsThe space use of the individual collared buffaloes as an approximation of the 95% home range size estimated using Brownian bridge models, ranged from 73 to 601 km2. The estimated home ranges were larger in the wet season than in the dry season. With the exception of one buffalo all collared animals completed a wet season migration of varying distances. A consistent pattern of seasonal movement was observed with one herd, whereas the other herds did not behave the same way in the two wet seasons that they were tracked. Herd splitting and herd switching occurred on multiple occasions. Buffaloes strongly associated with habitats near the Great Ruaha River in the dry season and had little association to permanent water sources in the wet season. Daily movements averaged 4.6 km (standard deviation, SD = 2.6 km), with the longest distances traveled during November (mean 6.9 km, SD = 3.6 km) at the end of the dry season and beginning of the wet season. The shortest daily distances traveled occurred in the wet season in April–June (mean 3.6 km, SD = 1.6–1.8 km).ConclusionThe Great Ruaha River has experienced significant drying in the last decades due to water diversions upstream, which likely has reduced the suitable range for buffaloes. The loss of dry season habitat due to water scarcity has likely contributed to the population decline of the Ruaha buffaloes.

Highlights

Assessing wildlife movements and habitat use is important for species conservation and management and can be informative for understanding population dynamics
One collar from 2015 was only active for approximately 4 months (SAT1500), and data from this animal were not included in the habitat use, home range analyses, or movement analyses
Estimated home ranges were larger in the wet season compared to the dry season for all the collared buffaloes, and buffaloes consistently stayed closer to permanent water sources in the dry season

Summary

Introduction

Assessing wildlife movements and habitat use is important for species conservation and management and can be informative for understanding population dynamics. The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania has been declining, and little was known about the movement, habitat selection, and space use of the population, which is important for understanding possible reasons behind the decline. Understanding wildlife movements and habitat use is critical for species conservation and management on a landscape scale [1]. The. Roug et al BMC Ecol (2020) 20:6 movements and habitat preferences of large ungulate species such as African buffaloes (Syncerus caffer) has been studied in multiple locations across Africa, including South Africa [4], Botswana [5, 6], and Namibia [7, 8]. In Tanzania, African buffalo ecology has been studied extensively in the Serengeti in northern Tanzania [9], but limited information is available from other areas of Tanzania

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