Author(s)

Harry Chabwela¹, Chansa Chomba^2*, Gilson Kaweche³, Ackme Mwenya³

¹Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
²School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Disaster Management Training Centre, Kabwe, Zambia.
³Department of National Parks and Wildlife Service, Chilanga, Zambia.

An assessment to determine habitat selection by large mammals was carried out in South Luangwa National Park, eastern Zambia. We divided Habitat types into five groups based on physiognomic classification as: savannah wood-land, back swamp, Combretum thicket, Mopane woodland, and Terminalia-Erythrophleum. Road count method was used to sight animals across the four identified habitat types. Results showed that puku, impala, elephant, and zebra were highly selective of habitat types. Puku occurred mainly in back swamp habitat (86.6%) followed by water buck (75.0%), elephant (72.3%) and zebra (65.7%). Impala were more abundant in Terminalia-Erythrophleum woodland (69.50%) while buffalo was mainly sighted in Mopane-woodland (45.07%). Other species were more cosmopolitan. It was suggested that foraging behaviour, season and security with respect to predation were the factors singularly or collectively that influenced the observed pattern of habitat selection by large mammals.

Assessment, Foraging, Road Count, Occurrence, Physiognomic Classification

Chabwela, H. , Chomba, C. , Kaweche, G. and Mwenya, A. (2017) Habitat Selection by Large Mammals in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. Open Journal of Ecology, 7, 179-192. doi: 10.4236/oje.2017.73013.