A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science. Johannesburg, September 2017. / Sable antelope numbers have been declining in protected areas of South Africa and they are listed as Vulnerable in the National Red List Assessment. In Kruger National Park, since 1986, the abundance of sable antelope has declined from 2240 to just under 400 individuals in 2014, making them at risk of local extirpation. The aim of the study was to explore some of the possible explanations, not explored before, for sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) perceived decline in the Kgaswane Mountain Reserve (KMR), in the North-West Province of South Africa. I therefore looked at assessing sable antelope use of space in relation to ‘high risk’ areas as determined by distances to fences, campsites and roads; determining the seasonal variations in the nutritional status of sable antelope; estimating calves recruitment, survival and population sex ratio. To achieve these objectives two sable antelope heifers were collared in the reserve, one from the ‘vlei’ herd and one from the ‘woodland’ herd. Both herds avoided ‘high risk’ areas, especially areas close to camping huts. The herds made little use of areas where there was lots of human movement. I expected the herds to utilise areas close to fences, especially after security burns along the perimeter of the park, but that was not the case as these areas were little utilised. Both herds preferred the tall grassland type of vegetation. As expected both herds utilised burnt areas and the woodland herd used these areas more than the vlei herd. Faecal crude protein and faecal phosphorus values during the dry season were higher compared to a previous study in KMR, which seems to suggest that currently the sable population in KMR is doing better compared to 2002-2003. Since 2011 until 2014, there were a total of 34 calves born with 15 missing after the study but only one mortality recorded. Therefore the reasons for the missing calves are still unclear. The best way to monitor survival of populations for long term studies would be to mark individuals in a population but unfortunately this was impossible for this study. I expected more females to be born as compared to males and this was not the case as there were more males (20) born than females (14), further indicating that potentially currently the population is doing better than in the past. / MT2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science. Johannesburg, August 2016. / Resource selection by herbivores is driven by processes operating across a multitude of spatial scales and is influenced by a variety of biotic and abiotic environmental conditions and resources across the landscape. Spatial scales levels are crucial in habitat selection studies because they affect the interpretation of results and what may appear important at one level may not be relevant at another. Decisions made by animals at these levels can influence animal movements and hence the spatial distribution of populations. In this way, the use of resources across different scales by individual and groups of animals can be linked to population performance as a whole. Within home ranges, habitat use is mostly influenced by variation of food resources and water availability together with competition and predation risk. The study aimed to determine sable home range extent and habitat use and to test how predation, competition and other environmental factors influenced the selection of areas within these home ranges, in the thriving sable population of the Gorongosa National Park (GNP), Mozambique. Two adult females, one per herd, were fitted with GPS collar providing 5 hours interval GPS coordinates over a year, which were used to determine the annual and seasonal home ranges extents. Home ranges were then overlaid with vegetation map to analyse habitat use. Contrary to expectation, sable home ranges in this study were larger than those found in previous studies. The herds did not limit their habitat use to woodlands, using also open grasslands, drainage lines and bottomlands that retained green grasses during the dry season. Both herds expanded their ranges during the dry season, searching for those areas that still retained green grasses and searching for remaining water sources. For the resources selection within home ranges, I used the same GPS collar coordinates to fit seasonal logistic regression models with biotic factors (predation risk and competition) and with environmental variables (distance from water, distance from roads, elevation, slope, NDVI, vegetation types and landscape). Results show that sable were less prevalent in areas with high predation risk, but herds differed in prevalence with competitors, one herd favouring areas with high reedbuck concentrations and the other favouring low concentrations. Effects of environmental variables were different between seasons and between herds, being distance from water, distance from roads, greenness and elevation the most influential environmental. Both herds, however, avoided low elevation areas during the wet season, probably in order to avoid areas flooded during this period. As conclusion, predation risk and competition influenced selection within home ranges by sable in the GNP, despite low densities of potential competitors and lions. Nevertheless, this influence seems to not be enough yet to limit the success of the population. The herds also showed evidences of being affected by dry season, as demonstrated by the home ranges expansions during this period. With increase of herbivores population other that sable, and consequently increase competition and decrease of availability of resources, this could lead to reduction of growths percentages of the sable population in the park in the future. / MT2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science Centre for African Ecology, School of Plant Animal and Environmental Sciences, 2011. / Habitat selection occurs across a range of different spatial scales and is influenced by a variety of factors, ultimately determining how animals distribute themselves across the landscape. Studying the decisions that an individual animal makes across different levels of selection, from its choice in dietary item to predator avoidance strategies, is a fundamental link in understanding the response of groups of animals and ultimately entire populations that may provide insight into population performance. The study formed part of a broader study focused on the decline of rare antelope species. Specifically this study was aimed at establishing the home range and resource use of sable antelope in a region where they were initially expected to be thriving. The levels of selection covered in this study are: the location of home ranges of an individual or social group within the landscape; the use of various habitat components within the home range; and the procurement of food items within those habitats. At the highest level, the broad objectives were (1) to determine where sable occupied home ranges within the landscape, indicating the suitability of various landscape units to sustain sable populations and (2) to determine the relative use of habitat types within those home ranges that may enable sable to avoid predation and acquire resources required to survive and reproduce. At the lowest level of selection the characteristics of forage selection and how the grass quality in the different vegetation types during different seasons affects the success of sable herds was explored. The broad objectives were (1) to determine the effect of seasonal flooding and rainfall on grass greenness in the floodplains and upland vegetation types and the consequent use of those vegetation types by sable antelope and (2) to determine how exploitation of resources in the floodplains and in the uplands contributed to the nutritional status of sable. I additionally quantified the time spent browsing and determined the composition of the browse component of the diet of sable. Adult female sable from each of three adjacent sable herds were fitted with GPS collars providing hourly GPS co-ordinates. Adaptive LoCoH was used to determine home range location and annual, seasonal and core home range extents. A vegetation map was created and the number of GPS locations within each vegetation type was counted to determine their relative use in relation to availability within the home ranges. GPS collars were used to locate herds daily so that foraging observations of browsing and characteristics of the grasses grazed could be attained. Acceptability and dietary contributions of grass species and browse were determined for each sable herd during different seasons. The availability of grass species on the floodplain grasslands and in the upland grasslands and woodlands was estimated. Water and the availability of key resources posed a constraint on where sable home ranges were established. Sable simply did not occupy the region in the north of the study area further than 7 km from permanent water and floodplain grasslands. Herds generally avoided open savanna, mopane woodlands and Kalahari apple-leaf woodlands characterised by sparse grass cover, particularly during the dry season. Home ranges were relatively small compared 4 to the range estimates from herds in Kruger National Park. There was no obvious seasonal difference in home range extent nor were there large areas of overlap between home ranges of adjacent herds. Observations during the study indicated that competitor species, including zebra and wildebeest, concentrated on the floodplain grasslands. Throughout the year H. dissoluta was the most strongly favoured grass species and contributed most to the diet of the sable herds in both the wet and dry season. During the dry season sable herds expanded their diet to include Aristida stipitata and Aristida meridionalis which are generally considered poor forage value species for cattle but that retained some greenness. Additionally, the contribution of browse, especially the leaves of Croton megalobotrys, Philenoptera nelsii and Combretum mossambicense and the flowers of Kigelia africana, constituted an important bridging resource during the extended dry season. Crude faecal protein levels remained above the suggested maintenance levels throughout the annual cycle. Crude faecal protein levels were elevated prior to calving when sable spent more time foraging on the floodplain grasslands where high value forage species such as Paspalum scrobiculatum, Panicum repens and Urochloa mossambicense and sedges were eaten. Indications are that the constraint posed by the distribution of water within the landscape, rather than resource limitations within occupied home ranges, are the primary limitation to population performance in the Kwedi concession. / Wilderness Safari, the Wilderness Wildlife Trust, the Conservation Foundation, Classic Africa and National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc Wildlife Management)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted