Speaker
Description
With agricultural land use continuing to increase, habitat fragmentation worsens, intensifying human-wildlife conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa. Among the most persistent challenges are those involving African elephants (Loxodonta africana), whose activities through anthropogenic areas often result in crop damage, economical loss, and occasionally human and elephant fatalities. A primary driver of these conflicts is crop raiding, as elephants seek high valuable food sources such as maize and cassava. With elephants increasingly moving further into human-inhabited areas and agricultural areas continuing to expand into elephant habitats, these conflicts are expected to intensify, posing challenges for both conservation efforts and local livelihoods. Throughout the decades, a range of mitigation efforts have been implemented to confront these conflicts, including chili-based deterrents and electric fencing. However, most approaches are either costly, logistically difficult to maintain, or show reduced effectiveness over time due to elephant habituation. Recent studies suggest that semi-captive African elephants respond negatively to predator-associated cues, particularly lion feces. This response is likely driven by elephants’ strong olfactory abilities and the presence of lions as natural predators, highlighting the potential of lion feces as a non-invasive and “invisible” mitigation tool. Such cues may induce avoidance behaviour in elephant herds by triggering innate fear responses. This study further examines whether wild African elephants similarly avoid the scent of lion faeces, with the aim of assessing whether compounds mimicking lion scent could be developed as deterrents to reduce human–elephant conflict. Using camera traps, this was tested at a waterhole in Jafuta Reserve (Victoria Falls), where stones and twine soaked in lion faeces were placed across the waterhole. Preliminary results show that weak but consistent trend of avoidance across all herds.Ultimately, this research would help support the development of practical, low-cost mitigation tools that reduce conflict while minimizing impacts on elephant behaviour and space use.
| Status Group | Master Student |
|---|---|
| FOR TALKS: Poster Presentation Option | Undecided/No preference |