Wonderful, a tropical island landscape! Or is it? In fact, this false-color image shows the interior of Namibia. The bluish-green color represents lush vegetation, while brownish tones indicate less densely vegetated areas and watering holes. But what’s the point of all this? The unusual satellite image recently helped researchers to understand the movement patterns of Namibian elephants.
In combination with GPS data from individual animals, the biologists were able to determine when the pachyderms prefer to roam where. This is important in order to adequately protect Namibia’s estimated 25,000 elephants. Although the country is known for its extensive national parks, the animals are also exposed to numerous threats here, such as poaching, urbanization, and conflicts with humans. However, if the pachyderms’ preferred locations are known, some dangerous situations could be prevented in the future.
The research team has already discovered, for example, that Namibia’s elephants prefer to stay in flat, lush areas away from cities. For female elephants, an ample supply of food seems to play a greater role than for bulls. After all, females usually move in family groups with other elephant cows and calves and are therefore dependent on larger amounts of food. “Male elephants generally tend to disperse,” explains Aung Chan from Colorado State University.
The GPS data also revealed three previously unknown corridors between Etosha National Park and protected areas in the Kunene region. Although the elephants prefer to stay within “their” protected area, connections between the two regions could eventually be essential for the pachyderms’ survival. They give the elephants more space to forage for water and food, and also allow the different populations to reproduce with each other, bringing diversity to the gene pool.