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Exploring the relationship between NDVI and African elephant population density in protected areas
Author(s) -
Duffy James P.,
Pettorelli Nathalie
Publication year - 2012
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/j.1365-2028.2012.01340.x
Subject(s) - normalized difference vegetation index , poaching , african elephant , geography , abundance (ecology) , ecology , population density , iucn red list , population , wildlife , climate change , biology , demography , sociology
Assessing the extent to which populations are limited by bottom‐up processes driven by food limitation is crucial to our understanding of how ecosystems should be managed. Using satellite‐derived Normalised Difference Vegetation Index ( NDVI ) as an index of resource availability, we investigated the relationships between greenness levels and African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) population densities. Our results unveiled a positive relationship between NDVI and elephant densities in nonforest populations, but failed to capture any significant effects of survey area and type, number of years after the continental poaching ban and the IUCN category of the protected area in which the survey was undertaken. The number of forest elephant populations for which density estimates were available was very low, and no significant relationship between NDVI and forest elephant density could be established. Altogether, our study suggests that NDVI can successfully be linked to megaherbivore abundance across Africa and further highlights that a continental approach to energy–abundance relationships can be conducted in a relatively low‐cost manner and short timescale, supporting managers' efforts to identify future suitable areas for elephant populations.