264 W. Mbamy et al.
of four study villages, although just one of these (Loaloa) comprised 92% of her village presence. She also spent a lot of time near the Ipassa Research Station within Ivindo National Park. Nzamba also approached within 500 mof four study villages: Loaloa rarely (6% of his presence) and three villages (which were not visited by Amelia) to a rela- tively similar degree (22, 36 and 36%of his village presence). Both elephants had bimodal patterns of visitation, with
peaks in April and September for Amelia (Fig. 2) and in July and December/January for Nzamba (Fig. 2b). Collared elephants were typically present near villages from dusk to dawn (67% of visitations were during 18.00– 06.00), with Amelia being slightly less nocturnal in her time near villages than Nzamba (62% from dusk to dawn vs 72%; Fig. 2).
Perceptions
The survey responses suggested that local farmers perceived a bimodal peak in elephant visitations, with peaks during March–April and September–October (Fig. 3). The most frequent perceptions of farmers regarding the factors driv- ing elephant visits (Fig. 3)were proximity of fields to villages (‘crops’;n = 47, 53%), followed by logging activities, primar- ily the felling of fruiting trees (a primary food source for forest elephants) and increased elephant access to villages via logging roads (‘logging’;n = 34, 39%) and local conser- vation policy as the source of elephant encounters around houses (‘policy’;n = 7, 8%). Self-reported crop planting and harvest were also markedly seasonal (Fig. 3). The most widely cultivated crops weremanioc (cassava), banana (plantain), peanuts and maize, which were typically plant- ed during August–September (rainy season; Fig. 3). All of these crops were widely perceived as being affected by elephants. Also cultivated in smaller quantities were sugar- cane, yams, African pistachios (commonly called cucum- bers), pineapples and a variety of vegetables (amaranth, sorrel, aubergine, okra). Of these, sugarcane and yams were widely perceived as being affected by elephants.
Correlations between perceptions and elephant visits
Taking the data from both elephants together suggests that elephant presence near villages (location points and per- ceived) was generally positively correlated with crop avail- ability (Table 1). There was strong support for corn harvest timing and weak support for peanut harvest timing being correlated with perceived elephant activity, and both of these correlations were negative (peanut and corn har- vests generally occur when perceptions of conflict are low). The empirical visitation data showed different pat- terns: there was strong support for a positive correlation be- tween sugarcane planting and weaker support for a positive correlation between manioc planting and elephant visit- ation. However, analysis of the two individuals separately reveals amore complex pattern of behaviour: Amelia’s visits generally correlate positively with crop availability (with strong support for a positive correlation with banana plant- ing and harvest and manioc corn and yamplanting), where- as Nzamba’s visits generally, although weakly, correlated negatively with crop availability. The correlation between the timing of the different crop planting and harvest times makes it difficult to determine which crops might be the most important in driving elephant visits; for example, su- garcane planting occurs during banana harvest (Fig. 3).
Solutions
Participants in the survey proposed six distinct solutions to human–elephant conflict in the area (Fig. 4). Over 20 re- spondents proposed government authorities must find a so- lution (32%), killing elephants that approach villages (30%) and compensation for their lost crops (22%). Ten respon- dents proposed building electric fences (10%; this has been implemented as a mitigation strategy since August 2018 in one of the study villages, Simintang), and five respondents proposed a halt to logging (4%). A single person proposed development of animal husbandry initiatives to replace the food and income lost as a result of elephant crop use (1%).
FIG. 2 Overview of location points of the two elephants (Amelia, female; Nzamba, male) within 500 m of study villages in Gabon (Fig. 1) by month and time of day. Lines represent the fitted model of seasonality and time of day from the activity package in R. Note that for seasonality the scale of the y-axes differs between graphs.
Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 261–268 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323000704
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