Diet DNA reveals novel African forest elephant ecology on the grasslands of the Congo Basin

dc.contributor.authorMeyer, Jordana M.
dc.contributor.authorHonig, Naftali
dc.contributor.authorHadly, Elizabeth A.
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-09T12:16:26Z
dc.date.available2023-06-09T12:16:26Z
dc.date.issued2022-07
dc.description.abstractElephants are essential ecological engineers, creating and maintaining landscape structure and ecosystem function. The recently distinguished and critically endangered forest elephant is currently classified as a selective, non-destructive frugivorous browser that maintains forest diversity, while the savanna elephant is a mixed feeder, often pushing over trees while maintaining grasslands. The presence and diets of forest elephants on grasslands and the potential maintenance of these systems remain largely unexplored. In the ecotone between the Guinea-Congolian forest and Sudanian-Guinean savanna ecosystems in Garamba National Park, DRC, we investigated forest elephant diet selection as a function of sex, age, and habitat using diet DNA (dDNA) metabarcoding of non-invasively collected dung. GPS collar data were used to determine annual habitat use. Dietary niche partitioning was assessed among megaherbivores in the grasslands. Fecal samples represented the diet of individuals within each habitat, providing valuable insight into the plant biodiversity. Ecological patterns of diet were also revealed using a taxonomically free exact sequence variance approach, highlighting useability in a poorly characterized region. In the early wet season, these typically frugivorous forest elephants were consuming mostly grasses in both the woodland and grassland habitats and showing no sexual dimorphism in diet selection when in the same habitats. However, males were greater risk-takers, entering the human-altered landscape to forage on fruit. The forest elephants play a distinctive role within this tropical grassland when compared to other megaherbivores and utilize the unique ecosystem throughout the year. This elephant population is exhibiting behavioral plasticity and shifting their gardening efforts to a novel resource in the grasslands as opposed to their standard role in the forests, which is key to understanding their impact as ecosystem drivers within this landscape. This shift in behavior may result in this recovering elephant population playing a functional role in the restoration and maintenance of these grasslands.en_US
dc.description.departmentMammal Research Instituteen_US
dc.description.librarianam2023en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe Philippe S. Cohen Graduate Fellowship and an African Parks Network grant.en_US
dc.description.urihttp://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/edn3en_US
dc.identifier.citationMeyer, J. M., Honig, N., & Hadly, E. A. (2022). Diet DNA reveals novel African Forest elephant ecology on the grasslands of the Congo Basin. Environmental DNA, 4, 846–867. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.296.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2637-4943 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1002/edn3.296
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/91082
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherWiley Open Accessen_US
dc.rights© 2022 The Authors. Environmental DNA published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. his is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.en_US
dc.subjectBehavioral plasticityen_US
dc.subjectDiet DNA (dDNA) metabarcodingen_US
dc.subjectGrasslandsen_US
dc.subjectLoxodonta cyclotis ecologyen_US
dc.subjectMegaherbivore niche partitioningen_US
dc.subjectNon-invasiveen_US
dc.subjectSexual dimorphismen_US
dc.subjectSDG-15: Life on landen_US
dc.subjectSDG-02: Zero hungeren_US
dc.titleDiet DNA reveals novel African forest elephant ecology on the grasslands of the Congo Basinen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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