Estimating Elephant Densities From Wells And Droppings In Dried Out Riverbeds. (2005)

In this paper, we present a new method for estimating elephant densities by counting elephant wells and dung boli within dry seasonal ?ooding rivers. A combination of aerial and ground counts of elephant wells and dung boli in the Ewaso Ngiro River were related to elephant numbers, obtained from an on-going monitoring program of individually identi?ed elephants in Samburu and Buffalo Spring National Reserves, Kenya. The total number of elephant observations was highly correlated with both densities of wells and dung boli at a spatial resolution of 4-km river-section. This indicates that both wells and droppings can be used for estimating relative densities at such spatial resolution.