Seasonal movements and habitat use of African buffalo in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

BMC Ecology

Table 2 Dry season (June-October) and wet season (November–May) resource selection models for 11 adult female African buffaloes in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania

The collars were active for varying durations between October 2014 and April 2017. Models were generated using mixed-effects logistic regression models with a random intercept specified for each buffalo and herd. The continuous covariates were standardized to improve model performance and allow for comparison of effect sizes across variables. A priori models were developed for each season and then ranked by model weight using the Akaike Information Criterion. ELEV (m) = elevation in meters, RUGGED = ruggedness, DISTRIV (m) = distance to nearest river in meters, V_OP_TR_15_40% CC = very open trees with 15–40% crown cover, OP_TR_40_65% CC = open trees with 40–65% crown cover, TR_SHR_SAV = trees and shrub savannah, OP_SHR_40_65% CC = open shrubs with 40–65% crown cover, CL_OP_WOODVEG = closed to open woody vegetation (thicket), SHR_SAV = shrub savannah, OP_CL_HERBVEG_TEMP_FL = open to closed herbaceous vegetation on temporarily flooded land, V_OP_SHR_15_40% CC = very open shrubs with 15–40% crown cover, OP_CL_SHR_TEMP_FL = open to closed shrubs on temporarily flooded land, CL_TR_TEMP_FL = closed trees on temporarily flooded land, CL_SHR = closed shrubs, IS_RF_HERB_CRP = isolated (in natural vegetation or other) rainfed herbaceous crops, SCAT_RF_HERB_CRP = scattered rainfed herbaceous crop, CL_TR = closed trees, SE = standard error, Ref = reference category for categorical variables

ISSN: 1472-6785