De Villiers &
Kok (1997) stated that the wet season ranges that
they identified for seven elephants were larger
than the dry season ranges. However, closer
examination of the data in their Table 3 indicates
that the statement is not as clear-cut as suggested.
Seasonal home range size was examined in their
study in three different phenological seasons: a
wet season when both trees and grasses had green
leaves (about November to March), a transitional
season when the trees had green leaves but the
grasses were senescent (about April to August),
and a dry season when trees had lost their leaves
and the grasses were senescent (August/September
to October/November). For five of the six
home ranges the intermediate season (mid to late
winter) home range was larger than the summer
range, and thereafter decreased to an area smaller
than during the wet season. However, their dry
season was shorter so it is likely that this resulted
in fewer sightings, which may have affected their
results. The single bull monitored in their study
showed a consistent decrease in the size of the
home range from the wet to dry period. Osborn
(2003), working with bull elephants in the Sengwa
Wildlife Research area in Zimbabwe, showed precisely
the same pattern as observed by De Villiers