Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Elephants are known to have a big influence on the environment. Their browsing routine includes the breaking of stems and branches, toppling of trees, and bark stripping. This, in combination with other factors, can have negative effects on the vegetation. However, elephants are also important seed dispersers, and their impacts on vegetation can facilitate food availability for smaller herbivores. This study focused on elephant impact on and utilisation of a coastal scarp forest in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP), South Africa. Transects were laid out to quantify the elephants’ use of the forest, and additional plots with paired controls were placed in areas with signs of high elephant impact. Elephant impact was recorded on the plots, and they were all fitted with a camera trap to determine what other mammal species were using the same areas. Overall, the elephant impact found was rather old, and there were few indications that the elephants had any major effect on either tree community or animal community in the measured plots.