Journal article
The Use of Audio Playback to Deter Crop-Raiding Asian Elephants
Missaka PB Wijayagunawardane, Roger V Short, Thusith S Samarakone, KB Madhuka Nishany, Helena Harrington, BVP Perera, Roger Rassool, Evan P Bittner
Wildlife Society Bulletin | WILEY | Published : 2016
DOI: 10.1002/wsb.652
Abstract
Human–elephant conflict (HEC) and poaching are the foremost threats to the survival of elephants (African, Loxodonta africana; Asian, Elephas maximus) in their natural environments. Reducing HEC has the potential to save hundreds of elephant and human lives annually across Asia and Africa. Lone adult male elephants are the principal crop raiders; therefore, we investigated the effectiveness of a variety of audio playbacks at deterring 22 wild adult male Asian elephants from food sources in a wildlife reserve in southern Sri Lanka in January, 2011. Food was provided ad libitum, and the reactions of the elephants in response to various stimuli were recorded and analyzed. Vocalizations from a w..
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Awarded by NSF-Sri Lanka
Awarded by Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations of the Australian Government
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was partially supported by the NSF-Sri Lanka (Grant No. RG/2006/EB/03). MPBW was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, under an Endeavour Executive Award (Grant No. 1901-2010), from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations of the Australian Government. Furthermore, the researchers would like to thank Dr. Ian Bland of the University of Melbourne for his help and assistance in the early days of this research, and Professor F. Dunshea for his assistance with the statistics. The study was also partially funded by the not-for-profit organization, A Future With Elephants (www.afuturewithelephants.org). There are no potential conflicts of interest. Authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions made by the editors and reviewers to improve the manuscript. We thank the Chairman and Staff of the Department of Wildlife Conservation of the Sri Lankan Government for providing permission and assistance in conducting the playback experiments.