6 - Space Use

Summary

Elephant species are today found in a breathtaking range of environments that can range from extremely seasonal and arid to aseasonal and wet. This chapter on space use examines how resource gradients, especially water and forage availability, influence habitat preference in the many different ecoregions of Asia and Africa. Spatial and social considerations are intimately tied together, as revealed by studies of elephant movements that yield ever more detailed understanding of what exactly elephants are selecting for. Once again, evidence points to important trade-offs between meeting nutritional requirements and safety, with elephant populations subject to sensitive dependence on social and cultural knowledge transmitted across generations. However, present-day elephant distributions and space use offer a limited view of their historic use of particular ecosystem types and geographic regions, given the constraints now imposed by anthropogenic land-use change and habitat fragmentation.