Summary

Extensive provision of water from artificial water holes has seen a major increase in elephant (Loxodonta africana) numbers at Hwange National Park (HNP); far above the carrying capacity of the park. This has led to the hypothesis that increased elephant densities in conjunction with their destructive feeding patterns may reduce/disturb the structure of woodlands and consequently the habitat of other wildlife species.

Concerns over habitat heterogeneity (variability and structure) change, due to provision of artificial waterholes have been primarily based on elephants being a water dependent species and that the need for drinking is most extreme in the arid and semi arid areas in the dry season when natural sources dry up. As such, water becomes a primary determinant of elephant distribution and in turn, elephants become a key determinant of the surrounding landscape heterogeneity (Chamaillé et al., 2009; Fullman and Child, 2012). Seasonal variation in space use as function of water availability is bound to result in elephants having an effect on habitat heterogeneity differentially.

Elephants switch diets between seasons and so vegetation types are used differently in space and time, thus herbivory pressure may vary across the landscape. Elephants have preference for particular habitat types which may cause elephant effect to be disproportionate to distance from water source, thus producing heterogeneity of vegetation patterns at large spatial scales (Henley, 2006).

To assess these predictions, this study aims to develop and test GIS and remote sensing methods to quantify landscape heterogeneity around water holes and the surrounding area in HNP and at the park periphery, where the area is subject to a range of anthropogenic resource utilization regimes. We also aim to test whether changes in landscape heterogeneity are a significant function of the distance from surface water holes as a way to test the extent of elephant effect on landscape heterogeneity.