Premium
The influence of lunar cycles on crop‐raiding elephants; evidence for risk avoidance
Author(s) -
Gunn Jody,
Hawkins Dawn,
Barnes Richard F. W.,
Mofulu Fredrick,
Grant Rachel A.,
Norton Guy W.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
african journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.499
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1365-2028
pISSN - 0141-6707
DOI - 10.1111/aje.12091
Subject(s) - crop , context (archaeology) , visibility , tanzania , geography , human–wildlife conflict , full moon , ecology , wildlife , forestry , biology , archaeology , environmental planning , meteorology
Long‐term solutions to crop raiding by elephants ( L oxodonta africana) should be based on an understanding of their behaviour and ecology. The real and perceived risks from humans have been shown to affect elephant behaviour. This is evidenced by elephants predominantly raiding crops at night, avoiding the height of human activity. If such human avoidance behaviours are apparent, it might also be expected that elephants avoid risks associated with higher visibility and increased human activity as may occur during the full moon. However, elephant nocturnal crop‐raiding behaviour in relation to lunar cycles has largely been a neglected factor in studies of human–elephant interactions. In this study around M ikumi N ational P ark, Tanzania, we apply circular statistics in this context for the first time to show a significant decrease in crop raiding during the full moon and apply this method retrospectively to data from another site in W est A frica with similar results. Additionally, a greater proportion of farms raided was guarded during the full moon than any other moon phase. Our results indicate that variations in crop raiding with lunar phase could be a general feature of elephant behaviour and thus could be used to design and time mitigation efforts.