The first location for the period between 06:00
and 10:00 each day was used for this analysis in
order to avoid the possible effects of elephants
using different habitat types at different times of
the day. The seasons were based on rainfall
data (Fig. 1c) and defined as summer between
1 November and 30 April and winter between
1 May and 31 October.
Distributions were overlayed using ArcView®
3.2a on the habitat type map (Fig. 1) and each
location assigned to a habitat type. Elephant home
ranges based on minimum convex polygons have
been shown to be strongly dependent on the
number of points used (Whyte 2001) and therefore
kernel analysis was used in this study (Hooge &
Eichenlaub 1997) and 50% kernels and 95%
kernels calculated (Worton 1989) using distance
units of 500 m. Separate analyses were run for each
of the three groups of elephants in each season in
each year.
While preference ratios lack statistical precision,
they nevertheless provide a crude but easily
understood comparison of selection and avoid-