Dry season habitat selection by a recolonizing population of Asian elephantsElephas maximus in lowland Nepal

Owing to landclearing and human expansion, Asian elephantElephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 is declining throughout its range. In lowland Nepal, the species now only occurs in small remnant populations, shared with India. In order to develop guidelines for conserving the species in the country, we studied the habitat use of a small and recently re-established population in Bardia National Park. We used the distribution of dung in fixed width transects to estimate seasonal habitat selection at a general scale of the Park. We also analyzed a specific habitat selection by elephants within the sal-dominated forest, by comparing the composition of trees and frequency of previous elephant impact on them along fresh tracks with those at random points. Elephants strongly preferred floodplain communities both during the cool and the hot season, but there was a marked shift from forest to grass-dominated subtypes between these seasons. Within the sal-dominated forest, there were more trees with previous elephant impact and a higher density of important food trees, especiallyMallotus phillippinensis along fresh tracks than in random points. We found little if any effect of human activity or location of available water on the spatial distribution of elephant dung. The density of the colonizing population was low (ca 0.2 animals/km2), but numbers are expected to increase in the future. With the preferred floodplain habitat being quite small (ca 60 km2), animals are then expected to spread outside the national park. A large tract of government forest adjacent to the park may then, for some time, provide needed space for the expanding population.