Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorBaltazary, Angelamercy
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-25T11:31:07Z
dc.date.available2020-11-25T11:31:07Z
dc.date.issued2019-04
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.58694/20.500.12479/1033
dc.descriptionA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master's in Life Sciences of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technologyen_US
dc.description.abstractPastoralists consider wildlife the biggest competitors over resources for livestock while little is known about the potentially positive or negative behavioural effects that livestock can have on wildlife when foraging together. In the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), wildlife has been grazing together with livestock for centuries but knowledge on how this impacts wildlife feeding behaviour or grazing intensity on grass regrowth is scarce. Behavioural observations of wildlife and livestock species were conducted from a vehicle driving along transects within NCA. Four groups of wild herbivore species including plains Zebra (Equus burchelli), Thomson’s gazelle (Gazella thomsonii), Grant’s gazelle (Gazella granti) and Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) were observed, grazing either with or without livestock species, i.e., cattle (Bos taurus), goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) and sheep (Ovis aries), over two different seasons. Out of 158 groups in total, on average 48 herds without and 31 herds mixed with livestock were recorded. Moving cages were used to assess the effect of different wildlife and livestock grazing pressure on grass regrowth (height and coverage). Results show that wildlife decreased their foraging time while they increased vigilance behaviour when grazing together with livestock, particularly when herders were present, compared to grazing without livestock. The grass regrowth potential decreased with increasing grazing intensity. Therefore, in contrast to foraging facilitation theory we conclude that the presence of livestock does not seem to be beneficial for wild herbivores and that wildlife protection area, in which pastoralists cannot lead their cattle, are important for a sustainable management of the NCA.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherNM-AISTen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/*
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCESen_US
dc.titleWild herbivore vigilance and grass regrowth under livestock grazing in Ngorongoro, Tanzaniaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US


Files in this item

Thumbnail
Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International