Title
Seasonality in elephant dung decay and implications for censusing and population monitoring in south-western cameroon
Author(s)
Nchanji, A.C.; Plumptre, A.J.
Published
2001
Publisher
African Journal of Ecology
Abstract
Dung decay rates have been used in the past to correct elephant dung counts to estimates of population numbers. These assume that the dung is in a 'steady state' where production rates are equal to disappearance rates. The inter-seasonal variation in decay rates, however, has never been fully investigated for elephant dung. This study, in the Banyang-Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary in SW Cameroon, investigated whether a single dung decay rate is really appropriate when converting dung counts to population density estimates. A total of 870 fresh elephant dung-piles were monitored until they had completely decayed, with at least 60 fresh dung piles located each month of the year between July 1994 to June 1995. The elephant dung decay rate obtained was 55.6% to 66.7% lower than those obtained for the rainforests of Gabon. This has implications for using decay rates obtained elsewhere to compute elephant densities from dung counts. Statistically significant differences were found in the mean duration of dung-piles between different months and different seasons. Environmental variables, with the exception of rainfall, did not aid in predicting the duration of elephant dung-piles. The model of Plumptre & Harris was used to estimate the standing crop of dung at any particular time of the year. The results show that, if there was no emigration of elephants from the population, then there was only a three-month period when the dung was in a 'steady state'. If emigration occurred during the wet season as is thought to occur then there was no period of 'steady state'.
Keywords
Cameroon; decomposition; dung; Gabon; population abundance; population density; rainforest; seasonal variation; seasonality; steady state; wildlife conservation; decomposition; elephant; fecal pellet; population estimation; seasonal variation; Cameroon; elephant; Elephantidae; Loxodonta africana; LOXODONTA-AFRICANA-CYCLOTIS; NATIONAL-PARK; RAIN-FORESTS; PILES; GHANA; DROPPINGS; RESERVE
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PUB12674