Asian elephants prefer habitats outside of protected areas

Oct. 21 () –

Protected areas, the cornerstone of global strategies to safeguard biodiversity, do not represent the preferred habitats of Asian elephantsreveals a new study.

In a study published in Journal of Applied Ecologyresearchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their international collaborators evaluated the role of protected areas in protecting Asian elephants and their habitats in the Sunda Region, a geographic area in the Southeast Asia, made up mainly of the larger Sunda Islands, Bali and the Malacca Peninsula.

Using more than 600,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) locations of 102 different elephants belonging to two different subspecies in two different biogeographical units of the Sunda Region in Southeast Asia, the researchers conducted the most comprehensive analysis of the movements and habitat use of Asian elephants to date. They then analyzed the space use and habitat preference of Asian elephants in and near the protected areas.

They found that most elephants had more than half of their range and core areas outside of protected areas and that elephants generally preferred habitats outside these zones, rather than inside.

The elephants preferred secondary forest, forest clearings and areas of regrowth and new plantations, never far from the forest, as well as lowland terrain, and avoiding steep and rugged areas. Therefore, the protected areas they do not represent the preferred habitats of Asian elephants in the Sunda Region.

The results may lead to the question whether protected areas are not important for the conservation of the Asian elephant in Southeast Asia. “We defend protected areas as the central base for the conservation of the Asian elephant, since the security they provide is key,” he said. it’s a statement Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz from XTBG.

Since human-elephant conflict is the biggest threat to Asian elephants, the researchers proposed the Asian elephant conservation strategies to establish large protected areas with core areas to help elephants survive long-term. and promote connectivity between protected areas through the use of a system of wildlife corridors. In addition, they noted that effective management of human-elephant conflict and fostering coexistence outside protected areas is important, especially in human-dominated landscapes.