TY - JOUR A1 - Roque, Dionísio A1 - Göttert, Thomas A1 - Macandza, Valério António A1 - Zeller, Ulrich T1 - Assessing Distribution Patterns and the Relative Abundance of Reintroduced Large Herbivores in the Limpopo National Park, Mozambique JF - Diversity N2 - This study is the first systematic assessment of large herbivore (LH) communities in Limpopo National Park (LNP) in Mozambique, an area where most LH species were extinct until the early 2000s. We investigate whether LH community parameters are linked with the availability of habitat types or the distance between sampling sites and the origin of LH resettlement. We placed camera traps in five habitat types in resettled and not-resettled areas to compare species richness, relative abundance index, grazers–browsers–mixed feeder and naïve occupancy of 15 LH species. While the richness decreased along the distance gradient of LH resettlement, relative abundance index strongly responded to habitat features. The grazer–browser–mixed feeder ratio oscillated, while from resettled to not-resettled areas, the ratio increased. Most species show a wide distribution range. The associations of most LH community parameters with habitat types rather than distance to initial release, together with the species-specific and guild-specific response patterns of LH, suggest LNP to already be in an intermediate stage of restoration. Our results highlight the importance of post-release monitoring of reintroduced wildlife as a tool to assess the success of ecological restoration initiatives in transboundary conservation areas. KW - camera trap KW - colonization KW - distribution patterns KW - relative abundance KW - ecological parameters KW - habitat types KW - large herbivores reintroduction KW - Limpopo National Park KW - Old Sanctuary Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-3454 SN - 1424-2818 VL - 13 IS - 10 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Roque, Dionísio Virgílio A1 - Macandza, Valério António A1 - Zeller, Ulrich A1 - Starik, Nicole A1 - Göttert, Thomas T1 - Historical and current distribution and movement patterns of large herbivores in the Limpopo National Park, Mozambique JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution N2 - This study provides a first attempt to describe the historical distribution and movement patterns of selected large herbivore (LH) species in Limpopo National Park (LNP), an area in Mozambique today connected to a network of transboundary conservation areas. Between 1976 and the early 2000s, most LH species were absent in this area following the civil war in Mozambique followed by intense poaching due to weak law enforcement capacity. Through the reconstruction of the historical and current distribution and movement patterns of seven LH species in five periods, we investigate possible changes in distribution and movement patterns over time. Data collection is based on a systematic literature search, censuses reports, online databases, dung count transects, and camera trap surveys. We mapped all LH observations and movements using ArcGIS 10.1. Our results reveal a dramatic collapse of LH populations between the peak of the colonial period and the post-colonial/civil war period (1800–2001), followed by a slight recovery from the post-proclamation of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park to the current period (2002–2021). While LH population decline applied to all seven species, there are species-specific differences in the process of restoration: African elephant (Loxodonta africana), African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and plains zebra (Equus quagga) appear to recover to a greater extent than giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), eland (Tragelaphus oryx), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), and white rhino (Ceratotherium simum). We found evidence of the functioning of proposed wildlife corridors in the LNP. The results give reason to assume that restoration of populations of LH is still in a very early and vulnerable state and that further efforts are necessary to strengthen the slowly increasing populations of LH. Our results highlight the importance of combining past and current data as a guide for the restoration of threatened species in African savannas impacted by human activities. KW - large herbivores KW - historical distribution KW - movement patterns KW - species collapse KW - species restoration KW - ecological corridors KW - Limpopo National Park KW - current distribution Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-3641 SN - 2296-701X VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Media S.A. ER -