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<p>Resource availability, predation risks, and habitat conditions play a role in determining herbivore resource use. Agricultural landscapes with sal <i>Shorea robusta</i> dominated forest fragments limited the recolonisation of elephants <i>Elephas maximus</i>. South Bengal is one such landscape, where we studied resource availability and use by elephants and the dependent negative interactions. We employed Quadrat sampling to assess the community characteristics of woody plants. We recorded the crops in the agricultural fields and obtained the details on crops in the entire landscape from the Agricultural Department. We used the feeding trail method to collect the data on forage use by two focal herds of elephants and record the plant resources they fed on. We calculated the Preference Index (PI) using resource availability and use by the elephants. We recorded 12,151 trees of 70 species in 708 quadrats (7.08&#xa0;ha) in South Bengal. <i>S. robusta</i> had the highest Importance Value Index (IVI) of 151.78. Elephants fed on 13 wild plant species but preferred nine species, including <i>Lannea grandis</i> (PI = 2.93), <i>Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb</i> (PI = 2.67), and <i>Gardenia gummifera</i> (PI = 2.56). The agricultural produce in the diet of the elephant constituted ~ 54%, which contains 28.28% paddy, 13.96% potato, 7.03% other vegetables, and 4.93% sugarcane. The lower consumption of food resources from forests and a higher dependency on agricultural produce were apparent. This may be due to less forage availability in sal-dominated forests. An optimal quantity of food resources in the forests is necessary to avoid frequent crop foraging by elephants, which leads to increased human-elephant interactions. Changes in the habitat, including the replacement of <i>S. robusta</i> and <i>Eucalyptus tereticornis</i> with fodder species such as <i>L. grandis</i> and <i>Aegle marmelos</i>, would increase food availability in the forests and, in turn, might reduce human-elephant interactions, including negative interactions in the landscape.</p>

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Choosing crops over natural fodder: feeding ecology of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in the mosaics of agriculture fields with fragmented forests of South Bengal, India

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月1日

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  • Aakriti Singh,
  • Honnavalli Nagaraj Kumara

摘要

Resource availability, predation risks, and habitat conditions play a role in determining herbivore resource use. Agricultural landscapes with sal Shorea robusta dominated forest fragments limited the recolonisation of elephants Elephas maximus. South Bengal is one such landscape, where we studied resource availability and use by elephants and the dependent negative interactions. We employed Quadrat sampling to assess the community characteristics of woody plants. We recorded the crops in the agricultural fields and obtained the details on crops in the entire landscape from the Agricultural Department. We used the feeding trail method to collect the data on forage use by two focal herds of elephants and record the plant resources they fed on. We calculated the Preference Index (PI) using resource availability and use by the elephants. We recorded 12,151 trees of 70 species in 708 quadrats (7.08 ha) in South Bengal. S. robusta had the highest Importance Value Index (IVI) of 151.78. Elephants fed on 13 wild plant species but preferred nine species, including Lannea grandis (PI = 2.93), Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb (PI = 2.67), and Gardenia gummifera (PI = 2.56). The agricultural produce in the diet of the elephant constituted ~ 54%, which contains 28.28% paddy, 13.96% potato, 7.03% other vegetables, and 4.93% sugarcane. The lower consumption of food resources from forests and a higher dependency on agricultural produce were apparent. This may be due to less forage availability in sal-dominated forests. An optimal quantity of food resources in the forests is necessary to avoid frequent crop foraging by elephants, which leads to increased human-elephant interactions. Changes in the habitat, including the replacement of S. robusta and Eucalyptus tereticornis with fodder species such as L. grandis and Aegle marmelos, would increase food availability in the forests and, in turn, might reduce human-elephant interactions, including negative interactions in the landscape.