Movement patterns of two reintegrated African elephant (Loxodonta africana) herds: transitioning from captivity to free-living.

With the escalating challenges in captive elephant management, the study of elephant reintegration emerges as a pivotal area of research, primarily addressing the enhancement of animal welfare. The term 'reintegration' refers to the process of rehabilitating captive elephants to a natural system, allowing them to roam freely without intensive human intervention. There is a relative paucity of research addressing the behavioural adaptations post-reintegration, despite reintegration of over 20 elephants across various fenced reserves in South Africa. Our study centres on two distinct herds of reintegrated African elephants, monitoring their movement patterns in two South African reserves over a 57-month period post-release. The primary goal of the study was to establish whether the flexibility and adaptability of movement behaviour of reintegrated elephants can be considered as one of the indicators of determining the success of such an operation. The second aim of our study was to investigate if the reintegrated elephants demonstrated an adaptability to their environment through their hourly, daily, and seasonal ranging patterns after a period of free roaming that exceeded 4 years. Our findings indicated that reintegrated elephants, much like their wild counterparts (movement based on literature), displayed notable seasonal and diurnal variations in key movement parameters, such as utilisation distribution areas and reserve utilization. These patterns changed over time, reflecting an adaptive shift in movement patterns after several years of free roaming. Notably, the trajectory of changes in movement parameters varied between herds, indicating unique adaptation responses, likely resulting from differences in the reintegration process (familiarity of reserve, season of release, presence of wild elephants). Although our study is constrained by the limited number of reintegrated herds available for analysis, it underscores the potential of captive elephants to successfully adapt to a free-living environment, emphasising the promising implications of reintegration initiatives.

Characterizing the trophy hunting debate on Twitter.

Social media is an arena of debate for contentious political and social topics. One conservation topic debated online is the acceptability of trophy hunting, a debate that has implications for national and international policy. We used a mixed-methods approach (grounded theory and quantitative clustering) to identify themes in the trophy hunting debate on Twitter. We examined commonly co-occurring categories that describe people's stances on trophy hunting. We identified 12 categories and 4 preliminary archetypes opposing trophy hunting-activism, scientific, condemning, and objecting-whose opposition derived from different moral reasoning. Few tweets (22) in our sample of 500 supported trophy hunting, whereas 350 opposed it. The debate was hostile; 7% of tweets in our sample were categorized as abusive. Online debates can be unproductive, and our findings may be important for stakeholders wishing to effectively engage in the trophy hunting debate on Twitter. More generally, we contend that because social media is increasingly influential, it is important to formally contextualize public responses to contentious conservation topics in order to aid communication of conservation evidence and to integrate diverse public perspectives in conservation practice.

Caracterización del debate sobre la cacería de trofeos en Twitter Resumen Las redes sociales son arenas de debate para temas políticos y sociales polémicos. Un tema de conservación que se debate en línea es la aceptación de la cacería de trofeos, cuya discusión tiene implicaciones políticas nacionales e internacionales. Usamos una estrategia de métodos mixtos (teoría fundamentada y datos cuantitativos agrupados) para identificar los temas en el debate sobre la cacería de trofeos en Twitter. Analizamos las categorías concurrentes más comunes que describían la postura de las personas con respecto al tema. Identificamos doce categorías y cuatro arquetipos preliminares en contra de la cacería de trofeos (activista, científico, condenatorio y opositor), cuya oposición derivó de diferentes razonamientos morales. Pocos tuits (22) en nuestra muestra de 500 apoyaban la cacería de trofeos, mientras que 350 se oponían a ella. El debate era hostil, pues 7% de los tuits en nuestra muestra estuvieron categorizados como abusivos. Los debates en línea pueden ser improductivos y nuestros descubrimientos pueden ser importantes para los actores que desean participar de forma efectiva en el debate sobre la cacería de trofeos en Twitter. De manera más generalizada, sostenemos que, debido a la creciente influencia de las redes sociales, es importante que las respuestas públicas a los temas polémicos de conservación estén contextualizadas de manera formal para así auxiliar a la comunicación de la evidencia de conservación y para integrar las diferentes perspectivas públicas en la práctica de la conservación.

Identifying the Effects of Social Disruption through Translocation on African Elephants (Loxodonta africana), with Specifics on the Social and Ecological Impacts of Orphaning.

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) exhibit a long developmental period during which they acquire complex social and ecological knowledge through social networks. Central to this is that matriarchs and older individuals play an important role as repositories of information gained through experience. Anthropogenic interventions-including poaching, culling, translocation, and hunting-can disrupt elephants' social networks, with implications for individual fitness and potential long-term population viability. Here, we draw on a unique long-running, individual-based dataset to examine the impacts of translocation on a population of elephants in South Africa, taking into consideration demographic rates, social dynamics, and ecological decision-making. Specifically, we compared two translocated groups: a group of unrelated culling Orphans and a family herd. We found that the Orphan group experienced accelerated reproductive rates when compared with the family herd. The Orphan group also fissioned more frequently and for longer periods of time, suggesting lower cohesiveness, and were less decisive in their large-scale movement decisions. These results add to the growing body of literature on the downstream impacts of social disruption for elephants. Whilst the translocation of culling Orphans is no longer practised in South Africa, we encourage careful consideration of any elephant translocation and the resulting social disruption.

Forecast-based action for conservation.

Extreme weather events pose an immediate threat to biodiversity, but existing conservation strategies have limitations. Advances in meteorological forecasting and innovation in the humanitarian sector provide a possible solution-forecast-based action (FbA). The growth of ecological forecasting demonstrates the huge potential to anticipate conservation outcomes, but a lack of operational examples suggests a new approach is needed to translate forecasts into action. FbA provides such a framework, formalizing the use of meteorological forecasts to anticipate and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather. Based on experience from the humanitarian sector, I suggest how FbA could work in conservation, demonstrating key concepts using the theoretical example of heatwave impacts on sea turtle embryo mortality, and address likely challenges in realizing FbA for conservation, including establishing a financing mechanism, allocating funds to actions, and decision-making under uncertainty. FbA will demand changes in conservation research, practice, and governance. Researchers must increase efforts to understand the impacts of extreme weather at more immediate and actionable timescales and should coproduce forecasts of such impacts with practitioners. International conservation funders should establish systems to fund anticipatory actions based on uncertain forecasts.

Acciones para la conservación basadas en pronósticos Resumen Los eventos climáticos extremos representan una amenaza inmediata para la biodiversidad, pero las estrategias actuales de conservación tienen limitantes. Los avances en los pronósticos meteorológicos y la innovación en el sector humanitario proporcionan una solución posible: las acciones basadas en pronósticos (ABP). El aumento en pronósticos ecológicos demuestra un enorme potencial para anticiparse a los resultados de la conservación, pero la falta de ejemplos operativos sugiere que se necesita una nueva estrategia para transformar los pronósticos en acciones. Las acciones basadas en pronósticos proporcionan este marco que formaliza el uso de pronósticos meteorológicos para anticipar y mitigar impacto del clima extremo. Con base en la experiencia del sector humanitario, hago una sugerencia de cómo las ABP podrían funcionar para la conservación mediante la demostración de conceptos clave usando el ejemplo teórico del impacto de las olas de calor sobre la mortalidad embrionaria de las tortugas marinas. También abordo los posibles retos para la conservación mediante la realización de las ABP, incluidos el establecimiento de mecanismos de financiamiento, la asignación de fondos para las acciones y la toma de decisiones durante la incertidumbre. Las ABP exigirán cambios en los investigación, práctica y gestión de la conservación. Los investigadores deben incrementar sus esfuerzos para entender el impacto del clima extremo a escalas temporales más inmediatas y viables. También deberán coproducir con los practicantes los pronósticos de dichos impactos. Los financiadores de la conservación internacional deberán establecer sistemas para financiar las acciones anticipadas con base en pronósticos inciertos.