Habitat degradation, vegetation damage, and wildlife-livestock interactions in Amboseli ecosystem wildlife sanctuaries, Kenya

It is important to assess whether anthropogenic activity affects wildlife distribution and resource use to appraise the efficacy of multi-use protected areas. Habitat degradation and vegetation damage as indicators of competitive and facilitative livestock-wildlife interactions were the focus of this study. Foot transects were conducted in the dry season of 2011, wet season of 2012, and dry season of 2012 in five wildlife sanctuaries in the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya, to determine whether habitat degradation and vegetation damage affected wildlife distribution and wildlife-livestock interactions. Simpson's and Jaccard's biodiversity indices and Pianka's niche overlap index were used to assess wildlife-livestock interactions across a gradient of habitat degradation. In the dry season, Jaccard's, Pianka's, and Simpson's indices (0.50, 0.84, and 0.99, respectively) peaked at the highest level of degradation. In the wet season, Jaccard's index (0.42) peaked at a fairly high level of habitat degradation, Pianka's index (0.82) at a fairly low level, and Simpson's (0.80) at the lowest level. Two-way ANOVA revealed that there was no effect of degradation or vegetation damage on wildlife distribution irrespective of the feeding guild. Therefore, it appears that continued shared use of the Amboseli landscape by wildlife and livestock is feasible.