Modelling the Environmental Determinants of Abundance of Two Sympatric Antelopes (Gerenuk and Grant's Gazelle).

A thorough understanding of environmental variables determining the abundance of species is fundamental for effective planning for conservation and management of wildlife and their habitat, especially in managed natural systems. Most protected areas in Africa afforded minimal conservation efforts are poorly assessed and increasingly faced with threats, making effective conservation of wildlife species within challenging. We used road transect surveys to investigate the environmental and anthropogenic variables that determine the abundance of two sympatric antelope (Gerenuk gazelle, [Litocranius walleri] and Grant's gazelle, [Nanger granti]) in Lake Natron partially protected ecosystem in northern Tanzania to improve conservation of these species. Fitting the data with a Quasi‐Poisson GLM, we found habitat type, landscape elevation, season and tree cuts were the most important predictors of species abundance for both species. Gerenuk and Grant's gazelle were more abundant in grassland and both tended to avoid degraded patches and areas closer to previous hunting sites, suggesting that habitat loss and hunting is having a top down impacts on the abundance and distribution of these species. Further, both species tended to avoid areas with water points especially during the dry season and foraged more on lowland sites perhaps to avoid being targeted by hunters. Our findings strongly suggest that maintaining habitat quality by minimising human activities such as tree cuts and hunting may improve conservation of antelopes in this fragile ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]