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Implications of Movement Behavior Responses of Both Asian and African Elephants in Changing Landscapes of the 21st Century.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Implications of Movement Behavior Responses of Both Asian and African Elephants in Changing Landscapes of the 21st Century./
Author:	Chan, Aung Nyein.
Description:	1 online resource (124 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-02, Section: B.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International85-02B.
Subject:	Wildlife conservation. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798380125079

Implications of Movement Behavior Responses of Both Asian and African Elephants in Changing Landscapes of the 21st Century.
Chan, Aung Nyein.

Implications of Movement Behavior Responses of Both Asian and African Elephants in Changing Landscapes of the 21st Century. - 1 online resource (124 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-02, Section: B.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Colorado State University, 2023.

Includes bibliographical references

An organism moves to fulfil its most fundamental survival and reproductive needs. Studying movement behavior can provide insights into both inter- and intra-specific interactions, how a species interacts with its environment and accesses resources, species distribution, etc. Given human presence affects mammalian movement across the globe, animal movement studies are increasingly important to assess and understand the impacts of humans on wildlife. Movement behavior response to human presence is particularly relevant and important to understand in the 21st century since global human population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050. The unprecedented level of human presence and associated land use changes will impact all living organisms on the planet, particularly megaherbivores such as Asian and African elephants which have some of the largest space use requirements among terrestrial mammals. My dissertation research focuses on studying and understanding the movement behavior responses of Asian and African elephants to human-related landscape changes.The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) which is currently listed as endangered under the IUCN red list of threatened species. The population status of the species is unclear but declining. The species is facing habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural expansion, heightened human-elephant conflicts related to human encroachment in previous wilderness areas, and illegal killings, including but not limited to, poaching for skin, ivory, and meat. The largest remaining tracts of wildland (i.e., habitat suitable for wild elephant to exist) among the current extant range countries/states occurs in the country of Myanmar. However, the struggling economy and unstable political climate put unusual amount of stress on the remaining elephant populations across the country. Asian elephant numbers are declining across much of their range in Myanmar, driven largely by serious threats from land use change resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation. To effectively manage and conserve the remaining populations of endangered elephants in the country, it is crucial to understand their movement behavior across the country's agricultural gradient.Chapter 1 provided baseline information on elephant spatial requirements and the factors affecting them in Myanmar. This information is important for advancing future land-use planning that considers space-use requirements for elephants. Failing to do so may further endanger already declining elephant populations in Myanmar and across the species' range. We used autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE) based on a continuous-time movement modeling (ctmm) framework to estimate dry season (26 ranges from 22 different individuals), wet season (12 ranges from 10 different individuals), and annual range sizes (8 individuals), and reported the 95%, 50% AKDE, and 95% Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) range sizes. We assessed how landscape characteristics influenced range size based on a broad array of 48 landscape metrics characterizing aspects of vegetation, water, and human features and their juxtaposition in the study areas. To identify the most relevant landscape metrics and simplify our candidate set of informative metrics, we relied on exploratory factor analysis and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Based on this analysis we adopted a final set of metrics into our regression analysis. In a multiple regression framework, we developed candidate models to explain the variation in AKDE dry season range sizes based on the previously identified, salient metrics of landscape composition. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the sizes of dry, wet, and annual ranges of wild elephants in Myanmar; and quantify the relationship between dry season (the period when human-elephant interactions are the most likely to occur) range size and configurations of agriculture and natural vegetation within the range, and (2) evaluate how percentage of agriculture within dry core range (50% AKDE range) of elephants relates to their daily distance traveled. Elephant dry season ranges were highly variable, averaging 792.0 km2 and 184.2 km2 for the 95% and 50% AKDE home ranges, respectively. We found both the shape and spatial configuration of agriculture and natural vegetation patches within an individual elephant's range play a significant role in determining the size of its range. We also found that elephants are moving more (larger energy expenditure) in ranges with higher percentages of agricultural area.Chapter 2 reveals how elephants interact with agriculture and other important environmental variables such as natural vegetation, roads, and water, etc. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to accelerated agriculture expansion is a major threat to existing wildlife populations across Asia. Although it had been shown that Asian elephant space use was correlated with the level of fragmentation on the landscape in Chapter 1, the mechanism underlying this process is not well documented and can serve to help focus conservation efforts. We analyzed selection behavior of wild elephants across three study sites with different levels of agriculture use patterns in Myanmar, assessing the impact of structure in the agriculture- wildlands interface on habitat selection by elephants. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest).

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2024

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798380125079Subjects--Topical Terms:

654486
Wildlife conservation.
Subjects--Index Terms:

African elephantIndex Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

Implications of Movement Behavior Responses of Both Asian and African Elephants in Changing Landscapes of the 21st Century.
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My dissertation research focuses on studying and understanding the movement behavior responses of Asian and African elephants to human-related landscape changes.The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) which is currently listed as endangered under the IUCN red list of threatened species. The population status of the species is unclear but declining. The species is facing habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural expansion, heightened human-elephant conflicts related to human encroachment in previous wilderness areas, and illegal killings, including but not limited to, poaching for skin, ivory, and meat. The largest remaining tracts of wildland (i.e., habitat suitable for wild elephant to exist) among the current extant range countries/states occurs in the country of Myanmar. However, the struggling economy and unstable political climate put unusual amount of stress on the remaining elephant populations across the country. Asian elephant numbers are declining across much of their range in Myanmar, driven largely by serious threats from land use change resulting in habitat loss and fragmentation. To effectively manage and conserve the remaining populations of endangered elephants in the country, it is crucial to understand their movement behavior across the country's agricultural gradient.Chapter 1 provided baseline information on elephant spatial requirements and the factors affecting them in Myanmar. This information is important for advancing future land-use planning that considers space-use requirements for elephants. Failing to do so may further endanger already declining elephant populations in Myanmar and across the species' range. We used autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE) based on a continuous-time movement modeling (ctmm) framework to estimate dry season (26 ranges from 22 different individuals), wet season (12 ranges from 10 different individuals), and annual range sizes (8 individuals), and reported the 95%, 50% AKDE, and 95% Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) range sizes. We assessed how landscape characteristics influenced range size based on a broad array of 48 landscape metrics characterizing aspects of vegetation, water, and human features and their juxtaposition in the study areas. To identify the most relevant landscape metrics and simplify our candidate set of informative metrics, we relied on exploratory factor analysis and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Based on this analysis we adopted a final set of metrics into our regression analysis. In a multiple regression framework, we developed candidate models to explain the variation in AKDE dry season range sizes based on the previously identified, salient metrics of landscape composition. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the sizes of dry, wet, and annual ranges of wild elephants in Myanmar; and quantify the relationship between dry season (the period when human-elephant interactions are the most likely to occur) range size and configurations of agriculture and natural vegetation within the range, and (2) evaluate how percentage of agriculture within dry core range (50% AKDE range) of elephants relates to their daily distance traveled. Elephant dry season ranges were highly variable, averaging 792.0 km2 and 184.2 km2 for the 95% and 50% AKDE home ranges, respectively. We found both the shape and spatial configuration of agriculture and natural vegetation patches within an individual elephant's range play a significant role in determining the size of its range. We also found that elephants are moving more (larger energy expenditure) in ranges with higher percentages of agricultural area.Chapter 2 reveals how elephants interact with agriculture and other important environmental variables such as natural vegetation, roads, and water, etc. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to accelerated agriculture expansion is a major threat to existing wildlife populations across Asia. Although it had been shown that Asian elephant space use was correlated with the level of fragmentation on the landscape in Chapter 1, the mechanism underlying this process is not well documented and can serve to help focus conservation efforts. We analyzed selection behavior of wild elephants across three study sites with different levels of agriculture use patterns in Myanmar, assessing the impact of structure in the agriculture- wildlands interface on habitat selection by elephants. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest).
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