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22 September 2014 Post-release monitoring of diet profile and diet quality of reintroduced African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in Umfurudzi Park, Zimbabwe
Victor K. Muposhi, Admire Chanyandura, Edson Gandiwa, Justice Muvengwi, Never Muboko, Philip Taru, Olga L. Kupika
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Abstract

Post-release monitoring of wildlife is essential to the success of ecological restoration initiatives. Translocation of wildlife to new ecosystems is associated with changes in diet profiles of individuals and ultimately animal performance, since productivity of rangelands varies in time and space. The population decline and local extinction of buffalo and other species in Umfurudzi Park, Zimbabwe, in the late 1980s led to temporary suspension of hunting activities. Recently, efforts have been made to resuscitate Umfurudzi Park through wildlife reintroductions and active ecosystem management. We assessed the diet profile and diet quality of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) between 2011 and 2012. A total of 42 grass species constituted the diet spectrum of buffalo. Heteropogon contortus, Eragrostis racemosa, Steroechlaena tenuifolia and Themeda triandra contributed significantly to the buffalo diet during the four seasons of the study period. Although a wide spectrum of grass species was selected in the wet season, the diversity of grass species selected was not significantly different among the seasons. Grass species crude protein deteriorated from 4.5% in the wet season to 3.5% in the dry season. Crude protein and phosphorus levels in buffalo faecal samples were within the recommended nutrient scale for southern Africa large herbivores. We conclude that feed availability and quality may not be limiting the persistence of the reintroduced buffalo. There is a need to closely monitor grass availability, dietary shifts, and forage quality over time, as well as resource partitioning with other feeding guilds.

© 2014 Victor K. Muposhi, Admire Chanyandura, Edson Gandiwa, Justice Muvengwi, Never Muboko, Philip Taru and Olga L. Kupika. This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/us/. The license permits any user to download, print out, extract, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and source of the work. The license ensures that the published article will be as widely available as possible and that your article can be included in any scientific archive. Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers. Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers.
Victor K. Muposhi, Admire Chanyandura, Edson Gandiwa, Justice Muvengwi, Never Muboko, Philip Taru, and Olga L. Kupika "Post-release monitoring of diet profile and diet quality of reintroduced African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in Umfurudzi Park, Zimbabwe," Tropical Conservation Science 7(3), 440-456, (22 September 2014). https://doi.org/10.1177/194008291400700306
Received: 4 December 2013; Accepted: 1 June 2014; Published: 22 September 2014
KEYWORDS
biodiversity
crude protein
habitat
herbivores
phosphorus
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