Presence Of Elephants Research Articles

How do African elephants utilize the landscape during wet season? A habitat connectivity analysis for Sioma Ngwezi landscape in Zambia.

The influence of environmental factors on the distribution and persistence of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) is pertinent to policy makers and managers to formulate balanced plans for different land‐use types.The study focuses on movement of elephants and how they utilize foraging areas in Sioma Ngwezi landscape in Zambia by answering the following questions: (1) Which environmental variables and land‐cover class predict the movement of elephants during the wet season in Sioma Ngwezi landscape? (2) What is the wet season suitable habitat for elephants in Sioma Ngwezi landscape? (3) What are the major wet season movement corridors for elephants in Sioma Ngwezi landscape?We used GPS telemetry data from the collared elephants to assess habitat connectivity. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) and linkage mapper were the tools used to predict habitat suitability, movement corridors, and barriers in the landscape during the wet season.The study identified elevation, land cover, and NDVI as the most important environmental predictors that modify the dispersal of elephants in the landscape during the wet season. Additionally, a total of 36 potential wet season corridors were identified connecting 15 core areas mainly used for foraging and protection from poachers in the landscape. Of these, 24 corridors were highly utilized and are suggested as priority corridors for elephant movement in the landscape.The identified wet season habitats and functional corridors may help to combat elephant poaching by patrolling areas with high relative probability of elephant presence. The findings may also help abate human–elephant conflict such as crop‐raiding by managing identified corridors that run into agriculture zones in the game management area.

Morphology of Pleistocene elephant tracks on South Africa's Cape south coast and probable elephant trunk-drag impressions

AbstractAeolianites and cemented foreshore deposits on South Africa's Cape south coast have the capacity to record and preserve events that transpired on them when they were composed of unconsolidated sand. Thirty-five Pleistocene elephant tracksites have been identified along this coastline. This abundance of sites along what was the margin of the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain allows for an appreciation of the forms that elephant tracks and traces can take in the context of the global proboscidean track record. They point to a significant regional elephant presence from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (~400 ka) through MIS 5 (~130–80 ka) to MIS 3 (~35 ka) and also indicate repeated use of certain dune areas. They buttress Holocene and historical evidence that elephants made use of open areas in the region, and that the remaining “Knysna elephants” retreated into dense afrotemperate forest for protection in recent centuries. Analogies can be drawn between Pleistocene elephant tracks and Mesozoic dinosaur tracks, and some of the Cape south coast elephant tracks are among the largest Cenozoic (and hence, Quaternary) tracks ever to be described. A newly identified tracksite in this area may provide the first reported evidence of elephant trunk-drag impressions.

Automated virtual elephant fence based on detection, alarming, and coordinated redirection of wild elephants.

Against the backdrop of the almost total failure of conventional physical fences to prevent deaths due to human-elephant conflict and elephant-train collision, management of the problem requires novel approaches. The elephant is a giant and intelligent animal, who, as has been observed through experience, cannot be effectively confined to an area by physical barriers, most of which are built without even considering long-established elephant passes. Instead, human habitats and facilities, including highways, should be pre-planned following an overall strategy to suitably assign natural resources to each party such that natural habitats are disturbed as little as possible. Hence, we envisage the need for a virtual elephant fence as part of the aforesaid strategy to warn elephants that a certain area is not appropriate for them to be present in or best for the safety of the herd. The present study involved in-depth experimentation to investigate the effects of multiple stimuli on real elephants based on the known elephant responses to such stimuli. The proposed system is an autonomous system that detects the presence of elephants, generates alarms for concerned parties, and coordinatively and tactically repels the animals back to safer areas. Experiment results indicated that the sound of a drone and the sound of tiger growls can both exert a strong deterrent effect on elephants. The sound of bees and the low-frequency burst yielded similar results in terms of encounter and withdrawal reactions. The resulting insights may lay a foundation for a novel approach toward the management of human-elephant conflict and elephant-train collisions.

Ptolemaic Berenike: Resources, Logistics, and Daily Life in a Hellenistic Fortress on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt

Excavations at Berenike (Trogodytika) on the Red Sea coast of Egypt provide a foundation date in the third quarter of the third century BCE, which corroborates Pliny the Elder's (HN 6.33.168) claim that Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ca. 285/2–246 BCE) established the port. Named after Philadelphus' mother, Berenike is the only archaeologically attested Hellenistic-era Red Sea emporium. According to literary evidence, it was one of about a dozen founded by early Ptolemaic rulers along the African coast. Study of Berenike's artifacts and ecofacts has confirmed the presence of elephants and has provided data on the diet of the residents and the location, acquisition, and distribution of drinking water. Research has also documented industrial and economic activities. This report presents highlights of these studies.

Monitoring & Tracking System for Elephants Using GPS/GSM with Smart Electric Fencing

Increased urbanization majorly causes human wildlife conflicts. Annually 30-40 elephants were killed during crop raids in India. Several million dollars were paid as the compensation for the people. Electric fencing is used to give an impulse shock to elephants but it is an open loop system it continuously gives the electric supply there will be the wastage of the electric supply. The presence of elephants can be tracked using GSM/GPS module and the required electric fencing can be turned on/off automatically by sensing the elephants. This system also used to automatically monitor elephant and also prevent its injuries during rail crossing. It also made necessary food arrangement by tracking the elephant activities. Electrocution of elephants will be greatly reduced and elephant life and human life can be greatly protected. This system protect the elephants and human and it will be very useful to maintain the ecological balance in the world.

Tourism opportunities drive woodland and wildlife conservation outcomes of community-based conservation in Namibia's Zambezi region

Initiatives to promote community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) have been evaluated with mixed results in socio-economic and ecological outcome dimensions. In Namibia, community conservancies are being established since the 1990s mainly to reconcile wildlife conservation and rural development. As Namibia gears up for participation in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), land use and land cover change and related biomass carbon dynamics may become increasingly important additional outcome indicators for the country's approach to CBNRM. Based on a social-ecological conceptual framework, we identify spatially heterogeneous local context factors that may drive positive and negative effects of CBNRM on vegetation cover in Namibia's Zambezi region. We test our theoretical predictions using panel data in a spatially explicit, quasi-experimental evaluation design and find that, on average, CBNRM somewhat increased elephant presence, but had a negative effect on woodland cover. Heterogeneous treatment effect analysis indicates that CBNRM does work for woodland conservation when communities are located in and around wildlife corridors, which provide tourism income opportunities. Despite success in stabilizing wildlife populations in the region, our results suggest that complementary conservation incentives may be required to make Namibia's CBNRM model fit for REDD+.

Ivory Coast without ivory: Massive extinction of African forest elephants in Côte d'Ivoire.

In pre-colonial and colonial times Côte d'Ivoire probably hosted one of the largest elephant populations in West Africa, resulting in the country's name Côte d'Ivoire (in English Ivory Coast) by French settlers. Numbers declined and by the early 90s it was estimated that the total number of both savannah and forest elephants had reached 63 to 360 elephants in the entire country. Here we present updated information on the distribution and conservation status of forest elephant in Côte d'Ivoire based on multiple sources-dung counts on line transects, records of human-elephant conflict, media reports, sign and interview surveys-obtained during the period 2011-2017. We used Pearson correlation to determine the correlation between the presence of forest elephant and site variables (size of the forest, percentage of area converted into plantation, size of the forest left, size of human population inside the PA, poaching index, distance to the nearest road, population density in the Department, level of protection of the PA). To examine the effect of ecological traits on elephant extirpation, we used Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to check for multicollinearity among variables. Based on dung count elephant presence was confirmed in only 4 of the 25 protected areas surveyed. PAs with higher level of protection have higher probability to be home of elephant population. The viability of these populations is uncertain, since they have a small size and are isolated. Aggressive conservation actions including law enforcement for the protection of their remaining habitat and ranger patrolling are needed to protect the remaining forest elephant populations.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Statistical–model based voice activity identification for human-elephant conflict mitigation

Human-Elephant conflict has become very common in the forest borders causing phenomenal increase in death of elephants as well as loss of human life. Elephants face a shortage of resources such as food and water, resulting in Human–Elephant Conflict. The presence of elephants can be predicted using elephant voice detection. We propose a machine learning based system for detecting elephant voice and predicting the presence of elephants in the forest border areas. Existing methods for elephant voice detection in literature require large feature data dimensions. In the proposed system, feature extraction methods combined with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) that greatly reduces feature data dimension is proposed to improve the performance metrics of the recorded elephant voice samples. A Support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used for the predictive model in this work. The proposed system is validated using the cross validation method and the performance metrics such as Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Precision, F1 Score and Computation time are evaluated. It is observed that with the proposed approach the average accuracy is 93.32% and feature data dimension is 1422 compared to an average accuracy of 83.5% obtained and feature data dimension of 18,882 with methods using Mel-Frequency Cepstral Co-efficient (MFCC)

Changes in habitat suitability over a two decade period before and after Asian elephant recolonization

Habitat degradation has caused a significant threat to wildlife, particularly to megafauna including the Asian elephant that has a large home range. Recolonization of Asian elephants in 1994 in and around Bardia National Park (BNP) has provided a unique study setting to address habitat change over two decades (1990–2013). Elephant presence data in 2013 was modeled using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA), which identified the influential ecogeographical variables for elephant habitat. These variables were further used in a regression model to determine habitat suitability for 1990. We found that elephant suitable habitat has been lost between pre-recolonization (1990) and the year 2013 in and around BNP. Unsuitable elephant habitat increased overall by 22% in Bardia District and 20% inside BNP. Central to elephant habitat loss has been a large human population growth, re-forestation efforts with an increase in sal forests, and elephant alteration of vegetation by grazing. Available suitable habitat for elephants in and around BNP should be conserved and managed to prevent further degradation for the maintenance of the elephant population, which will help mitigate human-elephant conflict in the region.

DOMESTICATION, DEGENERATION, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1910s–1930s

AbstractThis article examines conflict between farmers and elephants in the Addo region in 1910s–1930s South Africa to explore the porosity of the concepts ‘wild’, ‘tame’, and ‘domestic’, and their relationship to race, degeneration, nature conservation, and colonialism. In the 1910s, settler farmers indicted the ‘Addo Elephants’, as ‘vicious’ thieves who raided crops and ‘hunted’ farmers. This view conflicted with a widespread perception of elephants as docile, sagacious, and worthy of protection. Seeking to reconcile these views, bureaucrats were divided between exterminating the animals, creating a game reserve, and drawing upon the expertise of Indianmahoutsto domesticate them. Ultimately, all three options were attempted: the population was decimated by hunter Phillip Jacobus Pretorius, an elephant reserve was created, the animals were tamed to ‘lose their fear of man’ and fed oranges. Despite the presence of tame elephants and artificial feeding, the reserve was publicized as a natural habitat, and a window onto the prehistoric. This was not paradoxical but provokes a need to rethink the relationship between wildness, tameness, and domesticity. These concepts were not implicitly opposed but existed on a spectrum paralleling imperialist hierarchies of civilization, race, and evolution, upon which tame elephants could still be considered wild.

Community perceptions and responses on bamboo spread in native forests: a case study from Sri Lanka

ABSTRACTBambusa bambos (L.) Voss. expands rapidly in native forests in the dry and intermediate climatic zones in Sri Lanka, raising concerns among environmentalists in recent years. No studies have been undertaken so far to evaluate ecological and socio-economic perceptions of the local communities on this issue. In landsenses ecology, physical senses of the community play a critical role in land-use planning and sustainable management. Thus, a survey was conducted using 78 villagers live in three hamlets bordering native forests where B. bambos shown a high prevalence. The study community is a typical rural population with an agriculture-centered existence. Despite low income, their commercial dependence on forest resources was minimal. The villagers are well aware of the bamboo spread and its ecological consequences, though their overall perception on the issue was highly divided. However, their perceptions changed depending on the distance to nearby forests from their abodes. Higher the distance from where they live to bamboo-rich forests, their perception on B. bambos become positive and vice versa. The heightened fire incidences and increased presence of elephants following the bamboo spread have contributed decisively on their negative perception, suggesting the importance of physical senses in planning land-use interventions. The study concludes that any future management interventions to mitigate some of the ecological and social impacts caused by the B. Bambos spread need to consider the community’s perceptions and views as well as their active partnership to reap successful outcomes.

Futuristic climate change scenario predicts a shrinking habitat for the African elephant (Loxodonta africana): evidence from Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

The earth is gradually warming from greenhouse gases (GHG) and will likely exceed the 2 °C threshold envisioned by 2050. Species range shifts and extinction are imminent from the temperature increase, especially in human-dominated landscapes. Several regions are projected to become less habitable as a result of heat stress, reduced water availability, and other secondary effects (e.g., diseases). As such, the future of the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) remains uncertain when pressure exists from habitat loss, poaching, and temperature anomalies. In this study, we tested whether there would be any change in the 2050 potential distribution of the African elephant in the Hwange National park, Zimbabwe. We used Stochastic Gradient Boosting (SGB) with elephant presence as response and distance from the park boundary, temperature seasonality, precipitation of the wettest month, land cover, and annual precipitation as predictor variables. Results showed that predicted elephant habitat will likely shrink by 40% in 2050 from the potential present range of 146.76 km2. Our model on the current potential habitat of elephants was successful (AUC = 0.76) as well as for the projected habitat using RCP 8.5 data (AUC = 0.87). Our findings are amongst the first to show the likely effect of projected climate on the potential distribution of elephants in a savannah ecosystem. Our results are suggest that the current potential habitat of the elephant is sensitive to anthropogenic interferences, but a changing climate will influence elephant distribution in the future.

Habitat suitability modeling of Asian Elephant Elephas maximus (Mammalia: Proboscidea: Elephantidae) in Parsa National Park, Nepal and its buffer zone

Asian wild Elephant (Elephas maximus) represents one of the endangered species of large mammals in the world. The study area (Parsa National Park (PNP) and its Buffer zone (BZ)) has been used as corridor and habitat by Elephant. The study aims 1) to assess the suitable habitat of Elephant in PNP and BZ and 2) to determine which explanatory variables better explain Elephant presence in PNP. Field measurements were carried out in 67 plots for vegetation analysis. Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) was used for examining the relationship of habitat suitability of Elephant and explanatory variables for example, topographic (slope, aspect, altitude), climatic (precipitation, temperature), and biotic and abiotic factors (habitat preference, ground cover, crown cover). According to the results, the habitat suitability of Elephant is mainly explained by dominant species (29.6%), followed by temperature (17.1%), altitude (15.5%), habitat preference (11.4%), and precipitation (10%). The influence of the slope, ground cover, crown cover and substrate, was lowest in the study. Elephants were recorded up to 400 m a.s.l and in northeast and southeast aspect. The suitable habitats were in the forest dominated by Acacia catechu and Myrsine semicerate receiving precipitation about 300 mm in an area with a low slope (0-5 degree). Its presence was not related to forest cover and substrate condition. The model emphasis on environmental suitability and contributes to the conservation of Elephant in PNP and provides the basis for more advanced habitat analysis. The result from the modeling is useful to delineate the site that required specific planning and management intervention.

Author Correction: Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance

Large herbivores, such as elephants, can have important effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the influence of elephants on the structure, productivity and carbon stocks in Africa’s rainforests remain largely unknown. Here, we quantify those effects by incorporating elephant disturbance in the Ecosystem Demography model, and verify the modelled effects by comparing them with forest inventory data from two lowland primary forests in Africa. We find that the reduction of forest stem density due to the presence of elephants leads to changes in the competition for light, water and space among trees. These changes favour the emergence of fewer and larger trees with higher wood density. Such a shift in African’s rainforest structure and species composition increases the long-term equilibrium of aboveground biomass. The shift also reduces the forest net primary productivity, given the trade-off between productivity and wood density. At a typical density of 0.5 to 1 animals per km2, elephant disturbances increase aboveground biomass by 26–60 t ha−1. Conversely, the extinction of forest elephants would result in a 7% decrease in the aboveground biomass in central African rainforests. These modelled results are confirmed by field inventory data. We speculate that the presence of forest elephants may have shaped the structure of Africa’s rainforests, which probably plays an important role in differentiating them from Amazonian rainforests. Elephant disturbance favours the emergence of larger trees with higher wood density, and thereby increases the aboveground biomass in central African forests by up to 60 t ha–1, according to simulations with the Ecosystem Demography model.

Pengetahuan, Persepsi dan Kebijakan Pengelolaan Ekowisata Gajah di Kawasan Aek Nauli, Danau Toba

The development of tourist destinations is very important to increase the return of traveler to Lake Toba, North Sumatra. The Aek Nauli Elephant Conservation Camp (ANECC) is one of the locations that being developed in the Special Purpose Forest Region (SPFR) of Aek Nauli as a location conservation and scientific tourism for Sumatran elephants. Elephant was chosen an 'icon' for new ecotourism because them are animals that attract communities. This study aims to obtain information about knowledge and visitor perceptions as well as policy recommendations to develop elephant scientific tourism for supporting the tourist visits to Lake Toba in ANECC, SPFR of Aek Nauli, North Sumatra. This research was conducted in the ANECC area for six months, starting from May to October 2018. Data collection were used by questionnaires and interviews. Respondents are ANECC visitors who were selected by using the purposive random sampling method. Data analysis is carried out quantitatively whit frequency tables. The results showed that visitors knowledge about the existence of elephant ecotourism came from friends and social media. They visited ANECC for curiosity and interest in the presence of elephants. Perception of 85% respondents is positive for elephant scientific tourism because of good service, elephant attractions presentation and adequate facilities and free. The policy references are recommended for the ANECC development as follows implement to animal welfare and health for elephants, reinforce coordination and communication between managers, develop cooperation with business society (travel and hotels), to make ecotourism packages that integrated with Lake Toba, improve promotion through internet marketing and social networking and collaborating with local communities.

Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance

Large herbivores, such as elephants, can have important effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the influence of elephants on the structure, productivity and carbon stocks in Africa’s rainforests remain largely unknown. Here, we quantify those effects by incorporating elephant disturbance in the Ecosystem Demography model, and verify the modelled effects by comparing them with forest inventory data from two lowland primary forests in Africa. We find that the reduction of forest stem density due to the presence of elephants leads to changes in the competition for light, water and space among trees. These changes favour the emergence of fewer and larger trees with higher wood density. Such a shift in African’s rainforest structure and species composition increases the long-term equilibrium of aboveground biomass. The shift also reduces the forest net primary productivity, given the trade-off between productivity and wood density. At a typical density of 0.5 to 1 animals per km2, elephant disturbances increase aboveground biomass by 26–60 t ha−1. Conversely, the extinction of forest elephants would result in a 7% decrease in the aboveground biomass in central African rainforests. These modelled results are confirmed by field inventory data. We speculate that the presence of forest elephants may have shaped the structure of Africa’s rainforests, which probably plays an important role in differentiating them from Amazonian rainforests. Elephant disturbance favours the emergence of larger trees with higher wood density, and thereby increases the aboveground biomass in central African forests by up to 60 t ha–1, according to simulations with the Ecosystem Demography model.

How complementary are large frugivores for tree seedling recruitment? A case study in the Congo Basin

AbstractLarge frugivores provide critical seed dispersal services for many plant species and their extirpation from forested ecosystems can cause compositional shifts in regenerating plant cohorts. Yet, we still poorly understand whether large seed-dispersers have complementary or redundant roles for forest regeneration. Here, to assess the functional complementarity of large-bodied frugivores in forest regeneration, we quantified the effects of varying abundance of hornbills, primates and the forest elephant on the density, species richness and the mean weighted seed length of animal-dispersed tree species among seedlings in five sites in a forest–savanna mosaic in D. R. Congo, while accounting for percentage forest cover and the local presence of fruiting trees. We found that the abundance of primates was positively associated with species richness of seedlings, while percentage forest cover was negatively associated (R2 = 0.19). The abundance of hornbills, the presence of elephants and percentage forest cover were positively associated with mean seed length of the regenerating cohort (R2 = 0.13). Spatially explicit analysis indicated that some additional processes have an important influence on these response indices. Primates would seem to have a preponderant role for maintaining relatively high species richness, while hornbills and elephant would seem to be predominantly responsible for the recruitment of large-seeded trees. Our results could indicate that these taxa of frugivores play complementary functional roles for forest regeneration. This suggests that the extirpation of one or more of these dispersers would likely not be functionally compensated for by the remaining taxa, hence possibly cascading into compositional shifts.

Financial planning required to keep elephants in zoos in the United Kingdom in accordance with the Secretary of State's Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for the next 30 years

In June 2017, the Secretary of State's Standards of Modern Zoo Practice (SSSMZP) were updated with an appendix relating specifically to elephants (Appendix 8.8: Elephants). This update was published to bring elephant management standards in line with recognized advancing best practice. All zoos in the UK holding elephants are inspected against the new appendix, in accordance with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981, by dedicated Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)‐appointed inspectors. Achieving the standards set out within the new appendix will require financial investment and careful planning from all the zoos holding elephants within the UK. At the time of writing, the annual cost of keeping a breeding group of elephants at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, UK, was calculated from data collected over the last 10 years and the financial investment required to achieve SSSMZP compliance was estimated. The commercial benefit that elephants bring to ZSL Whipsnade Zoo was also quantified using feedback from visitor surveys. The cost of keeping a breeding herd of elephants at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo was estimated at £593 021–£641 863 per year, excluding indirect staffing costs, ground rent and contributions made by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to field‐conservation projects. Costs for achieving SSSMZP compliance will be considerably greater with substantial capital investment required. The commercial benefit was found to be extensive; with predicted significant increased visitor dwell time and secondary spend in the presence of elephants. Using ZSL Whipsnade Zoo as an example, this paper aims to consider holistically the financial costs when planning and implementing an optimum, welfare‐centred, sustainable future for elephants in zoos.

The elephant in the ‘room’: determinants of songbird assemblages in the Thicket Biome, South Africa

ABSTRACTWhen vegetation structure is altered, songbird communities may be affected. Despite speculation that African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) browsing impacts bird communities, existing data are limited. I sampled the bird communities of the Albany Thicket Biome at 10 sites in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, half with elephants and half without. Songbird community parameters were best predicted by how long elephants had been present, elephant density and the percentage cover of thicket vegetation. The sites where elephants had been present for longer had more bird species and increased songbird density and diversity. However, bird density also increased with increasing thicket vegetation cover and this is a phenomenon unlikely to be compatible with long-term elephant presence. There was an almost equal split between the number of bird species that appeared to be negatively affected by changes in habitat structure (47%) and those which benefited (53%). Smaller birds were generally more abundant as vegetation structural integrity increased and larger birds were more abundant when vegetation structural integrity declined. The browsing of elephants could be viewed as facilitative for songbirds in the short term. However, this effect may not persist in the long term because all elephant populations (notorious tree-fellers) in the Eastern Cape are found in fenced areas where natural migration is not possible. More broadly, my data provide important insight into how avian communities respond to habitat transformation at the local and regional scales.

Habitat use by Asian elephants: Context matters

Asian elephants are isolated in fragmented habitat patches in and around Bardia National Park (BNP), Nepal. To describe habitat use patterns and ecogeographical variables (EGVs) that determine an elephant's niche in BNP, we used a General Niche-Environment System Factor Analysis (GNESFA) modeling framework. Novel to our study was the comparison of niche requirements between core (residential) and corridor (travel corridor) areas to elucidate site-specific preferences of Asian elephants in BNP. A total of 13 EGVs (four topographic variables, six land covers, heterogeneity index and two anthropogenic variables) were examined. We implemented a ‘bias file’ approach to address potential sampling bias in the transect survey methods for presence records. Our study illustrated that, regardless of study area, elephants' habitat use was positively influenced by presence of grasslands, mixed forest, and landscape heterogeneity, whereas use was restricted by the topographic variables of slope and elevation. Results also demonstrated different habitat preferences between elephants in the core and corridor, which may be attributed to differences in potential dangers posed in these areas; in the core, elephant habitat preference was mainly associated with food resources such as grassland or mixed forest, whereas in the corridor, where elephants are more likely to encounter human conflict, the anthropogenic factor of distance to human settlements contributed the most in predicting elephant presence. Correlations among significant factors from the three methods (FANTER, ENFA, and MADIFA) demonstrated the consistent and reliable results of these approaches. While these methods complemented each other by providing different points of view, FANTER was especially useful when bimodal niches were analyzed. We suggest a detailed conservation plan for the small populations of elephants in BNP and surrounding areas, while considering the protection of travel routes from human activities in the corridor habitats, and lastly, maintaining grasslands and waterholes in core habitats.