Water-Level Fluctuations and Ungulate Community Dynamics in Central Uganda

Abstract

Climate change has altered precipitation regimes with concomitant influences in hydrology. For a complex assemblage of ungulates, these water-level fluctuations might alter habitat partitioning thought to be crucial for coexistence in response to livestock introduction. We placed camera traps in three habitat types along the Mayanja River in central Uganda to evaluate space use by native and domestic ungulates. For each species, we assessed the difference in the proportion of days with camera-trap detections during three water-level conditions (low in 2017, normal in 2015, and high in 2016). Sitatunga was the only species regularly using wetlands; their use of remote wetlands remained consistent regardless of water-level conditions, and their use of forest habitats decreased during the study. In the forest, warthogs showed no change in use, while proportion of days with detections increased over time for all other ungulates. Our results indicate that ungulate community space use appears to be independent of hydrologic condition, and that risk for competitive exclusion between native and domestic ungulates is tempered by dietary and habitat use differences. Adaptations to dynamic hydrology appears to buffer consequences for ungulate communities; more serious are habitat losses to agriculture and development.