Studies on the behavioural ecology of Przewalski horses (Equus przewalskiiy) recently reintroduced into Hustai National Park, Mongolia were carried out between 1998 and 2000. Home range size and habitat use, social, marking, and vigilance behaviour, and their reaction to flies were quantified. Home ranges of harems ranged from 129 ha to 2399 ha, with core areas of between 61 ha and 1196 ha. There was no relationship between range size and harem size, or length of time since release. The more nutritious vegetation at lower elevations was preferentially selected. The horses rested near ridges during the hotter parts of the day where there were fewer flies, and grazed in the valleys in the mornings and evenings. Woodland areas were used to shelter from the sun, despite their high fly abundance. Muscid flies were most frequently caught; Tabanids were rare. Dominance was related to age, aggression and length of time in the harem. The frequency of associative behaviours did not correlate with any social factor, but had a hygienic function. Stallions marked stud piles wid mare eliminations in different ways suggesting different functions. In addition to being vigilant for predators, the horses appeared to scan for social cues and food patches. Home range size and habitat use, and general pattern of marking and vigilance behaviour, of the wild Przewalski horses were similar to those seen among feral domestic horses, although they tended to be less aggressive than captive and feral horses. So far, the re-establishment of przewalski horses into HNP appears to have been successful, although constant monitoring of the population is necessary. As the population grows, there will be potential problems to do with exceeding the carrying capacity of the park and hybridisation with domestic horses. The future management of the horses is discussed.

As habitat loss and fragmentation are major causes of decline in animal species, studying habitat requirements in these species is a key component of their recovery. I investigated the relationship between landscape composition and habitat use of Blanding’s turtles, Emydoidea blandingii, a freshwater turtle threatened by habitat loss and road mortality on most of its Canadian range. In 2010, I conducted a radio-telemetry survey of 44 Blanding’s turtles in southern Québec, Canada, and modelled their home range size from land cover proportions measured at many spatial scales. I also used data from a visual survey conducted in 2008 and 2009 to model wetland occupancy of the species at the landscape scale. Home range size of the Blanding’s turtle was significantly correlated to landscape composition, and the proportions of agriculture, open water and anthropogenic lands had the strongest relationships with home range size. However, those relationships were weak and the models were unable to predict home range size accurately. At the landscape scale, land cover and road density poorly predicted probability of occurrence, and Blanding’s turtles occupied wetlands in both disturbed and natural sites. Management of the species should focus on protecting sites of occurrence with high wetland density, low road density, and sufficient suitable habitat to cover their seasonal movement patterns.

Goitered gazelle is one of the threatened species of Turkey living in only &amp / #289 / anliurfa region. In this study, goitered gazelles have been released to their previous habitat in Sanliurfa-Suru&ccedil / region and seven of females were collared with GPS collars. These individuals were monitored for a year and their seasonal habitat selection and home range sizes are determined by using location data recorded on the collars. In addition to 4 seasons of the year, home range and habitat selection are estimated for mating and calving periods. Also, summer period is divided to two as summer1 and summer 2 because of changing availability of water resources in study area. Seasonal home range sizes of GPS collared gazelles are estimated as average 3.61 &plusmn / 0.47 km2 for winter, 3.96 &plusmn / 0.44 km2 for spring, 4.55 &plusmn / 1.35 km2 for summer1, 2.26 &plusmn / 0.20 km2 for summer2, 3.38 &plusmn / 0.44 km2 for autumn, 1.37 &plusmn / 0.50 km2 for mating season, and 1.66 &plusmn / 0.50 km2 for calving season.Seven habitat variable layers were prepared for the evaluation of seasonal habitat selection of GPS collared female gazelles. Gazelles were selected east aspects in summer and west aspects in winter seasons and, north and flat aspects were avoided in all seasons for a year. Water can be considered the key habitat variable for the goitered gazelles. The results show that some home ranges are outside of the protected area and gazelles do not use large areas in the protected area. In order to improve conservation of gazelles, protected area should be re-arranged and shifted to more intensely used areas by gazelles.

As habitat loss and fragmentation are major causes of decline in animal species, studying habitat requirements in these species is a key component of their recovery. I investigated the relationship between landscape composition and habitat use of Blanding’s turtles, Emydoidea blandingii, a freshwater turtle threatened by habitat loss and road mortality on most of its Canadian range. In 2010, I conducted a radio-telemetry survey of 44 Blanding’s turtles in southern Québec, Canada, and modelled their home range size from land cover proportions measured at many spatial scales. I also used data from a visual survey conducted in 2008 and 2009 to model wetland occupancy of the species at the landscape scale. Home range size of the Blanding’s turtle was significantly correlated to landscape composition, and the proportions of agriculture, open water and anthropogenic lands had the strongest relationships with home range size. However, those relationships were weak and the models were unable to predict home range size accurately. At the landscape scale, land cover and road density poorly predicted probability of occurrence, and Blanding’s turtles occupied wetlands in both disturbed and natural sites. Management of the species should focus on protecting sites of occurrence with high wetland density, low road density, and sufficient suitable habitat to cover their seasonal movement patterns.

As habitat loss and fragmentation are major causes of decline in animal species, studying habitat requirements in these species is a key component of their recovery. I investigated the relationship between landscape composition and habitat use of Blanding’s turtles, Emydoidea blandingii, a freshwater turtle threatened by habitat loss and road mortality on most of its Canadian range. In 2010, I conducted a radio-telemetry survey of 44 Blanding’s turtles in southern Québec, Canada, and modelled their home range size from land cover proportions measured at many spatial scales. I also used data from a visual survey conducted in 2008 and 2009 to model wetland occupancy of the species at the landscape scale. Home range size of the Blanding’s turtle was significantly correlated to landscape composition, and the proportions of agriculture, open water and anthropogenic lands had the strongest relationships with home range size. However, those relationships were weak and the models were unable to predict home range size accurately. At the landscape scale, land cover and road density poorly predicted probability of occurrence, and Blanding’s turtles occupied wetlands in both disturbed and natural sites. Management of the species should focus on protecting sites of occurrence with high wetland density, low road density, and sufficient suitable habitat to cover their seasonal movement patterns.

The movement and distribution of elephants can be influenced by environmental factors over time (Foley, 2002). Examining how features in the landscape such as vegetation productivity, water sources and anthropogenic activities drive the movement of elephants can help in understanding patterns of movement. It can also help to inform the establishment and alignment of protected areas, wildlife corridors and identification of tourism hotspots as well as policy interventions to manage Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC). The Okavango Panhandle in Botswana is a HEC hotspot and the focus of My study. A number of strategies to address HEC are underway in the area, however one longer term strategy that has been proposed in this area involves provision of artificial water sources to influence elephant movements and keep animals away from fields during the cropping season. However, an improved understanding of how elephants utilize their habitats in relation to natural ephemeral surface water and other factors that influence their movements from dryland habitats to the Okavango Delta resources is needed to inform such management decisions. My study seeks to establish the role of ephemeral surface water on elephant distribution in the eastern Okavango Panhandle, Botswana as well as assess the movement distribution of elephants in relation to the seasonality, proximity and spatial extent of water presence represented by ephemeral surface water. Time series analysis of water extent on ephemeral surface water of the eastern Okavango panhandle will be developed and overlaid with elephant movement datasets. Elephant collar data from 15 elephants (5 males and 10 females) in the eastern Okavango Panhandle, Botswana have been analysed and Home Range (HR) sizes estimated using Kernel Density Estimation (KDE). The relative importance/probability of environmental variables in determining elephants' movement based on the Utilization Distribution (UD) were computed using Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs). I utilized a remote sensing spectral index, namely the Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI) to delineate ephemeral surface water in dryland (excluding permanent waters) of the study area. The results reveal that during the wet season, elephants were evenly spread out all over the study area until the early dry season (April-June) when the ephemeral waterholes dried up. Elephants moved southwards towards the permanent waters of the Okavango River, where there are many human settlements and farms. Male HR sizes were found to be bigger than those of female elephants. Wet season (early and late) home range sizes were also bigger when compared to dry season (early and late) HR size. Mean daily distances were computed to investigate the effect of season on elephant daily distances and the distances ranged between 5km and 6.8km in the late wet and in the early wet and late dry season respectively. The Resource Selection Function (RSF) analysis shows that water adjacent sites are preferred over distant ones and both sexes prefer areas with high NDVI, with this preference being more pronounced in males. The seasonal variation of water use is notable in that it affirms the importance of proximity to water for elephants and has implications for their management and HEC. For example, I found that ephemeral surface water has a significant role in influencing elephant spatial use in the area, particularly during the early and late wet season. As ephemeral pans dried and NDVI (vegetation greenness) decreased, elephants started to move closer to the Okavango Delta and consequently human settlements and fields. However, further investigations into the timing of movements away from ephemeral waterholes and the influence of other environmental factors on elephant movements in the area would be needed before any recommendations can be made regarding artificial water provision in this area.

Knowledge about a species’ reproductive parameters such as breeding behaviours is a vital building block for essential conservation actions, especially for endangered species. Despite this, there is a considerable knowledge gap about the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) maternal behaviours, as well as the timing of den independence for the cubs. It has been assumed that female snow leopards change their behaviours post-denning and that the cubs leave their den together with their mothers around two to three months of age. However, until this day no quantitative data has been used to analyse female behaviours post-denning and when the cubs leave their den. I analysed pre- and post-denning activity for seven GPS-collared snow leopard females in Tost Mountains of southern Mongolia during the years 2010 to 2019. With linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models, I found that female snow leopards with small cubs changed their behavioural patterns and space use by decreasing their monthly home range size, compared to females with older or no cubs. When the cubs became six months old, there were no detectable differences in these behaviours which suggests that the cubs started to travel continuously with their mother at the age of 5-6 months. The rate at which the collars successfully acquired positions decreased considerably during the early phase of denning when the female spent considerable time at the den sites where the collars could not communicate with the satellites. The age of the cubs when the female left the den ranged from 21-61 days (mean =44 days), suggesting that snow leopard females use their dens for 1.5 ± 0.5 months. This study provides the first estimate of the extent of den use by snow leopards, as well as the first estimates of post-denning behavioural patterns for snow leopard females and their cubs.