Transboundary wildlife species like the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) requires a comprehensive regional approach to monitoring and effective conservation. This requires a thorough understanding of their ecology, ranging behaviour and the distribution of suitable habitats. In diverse landscapes, the management and conservation of the African savannah elephant are critical, particularly in dry protected areas where water and food resources are limited. The use of innovative Geographic Information Science (GIS) and remote sensing tools is revolutionising the understanding of the ranging behaviour and habitat dynamics of the African savannah elephant. When adopting GIS and remote sensing tools, park managers and conservationists must remember that: (i) the African savannah elephant has a determinate movement pattern and clusters around dominant vegetation types, (ii) the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) performs better relative to other indices in modelling the distribution of the African savannah elephant in arid areas, (iii) cellular automata-artificial neural network (CA-ANN) is a robust technique in modelling future landscapes, (iv) landscapes or environments near water points are significantly utilised by the African savannah elephant and vegetation performance is usually better far from the piosphere, (v) significant difference in the size of the home ranges and habitat selection by the African savannah elephant is mostly influenced by vegetation type and seasonal variations of resources, (vi) hyperslender stems in forest gaps confirms minimal damage in African savannah elephant dominated landscapes (satellite data confirms evidence of high tree regeneration) and (vii) the dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Model (dBBMM) is a smart technique for home range and utilisation distribution construction in different protected zones.

The conversion of natural areas into agricultural land has increased human-wildlife interactions, often resulting in crop damage. This study focuses on the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), which thrives in landscapes where well-preserved, naturally-vegetated public and private lands are juxtaposed with agricultural fields. We investigated the habitat use and selection of four herds of white-lipped peccaries in a landscape mosaic along the southern border of Emas National Park in the Cerrado biome of Brazil. Our findings reveal that white-lipped peccaries prefer both corn plantations and gallery forests as habitats. Through high-frequency GPS telemetry, we observed a strong tendency to turn when herds were in agricultural areas and gallery forests, indicating feeding behavior. On the other hand, they typically move in straight lines for long distances when traversing bare soil fields and native Cerrado vegetation, suggesting they are merely passing through these habitats. The extensive feeding on corn crops in agricultural fields has resulted in significant financial losses for producers, leading to a conflict between white-lipped peccaries and landowners. Understanding the movement dynamics of the species and their intensive use of both private and public lands can aid in the development of management strategies that minimize or eliminate crop losses while ensuring the survival of this vulnerable species in landscapes comprising agricultural fields and native habitats.

Rapid climate change in Arctic regions is linked to the expansion of woody taxa (shrubification), and an increase in biomass as tundra becomes greener. Reindeer and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are considered able to suppress vegetative greening through grazing and trampling. Quantifying reindeer use of different land cover types can help us understand their impact on the growth and recruitment of deciduous shrubs, many of which serve as fodder (e.g. Salix spp.), in favourable habitats, such as naturally denuded landslides in permafrost areas. Understanding the spatial distribution of reindeer pressure on vegetation is important to project future patterns of greening, albedo, snow capture, active layer development, and the overall resilience of tundra rangelands under ongoing climate change. Here we quantify reindeer habitat use within the low Arctic tundra zone of Yamal, West Siberia estimated from pellet-group counts, and also how active layer thickness (ALT) relates to reindeer use. Our results confirm intensive use by reindeer of terrain with high June-July time integrated normalised difference vegetation index, steeper slopes, ridges, upper slopes and valleys, and a preference for low erect shrub tundra. These sites also seem to have a shallower ALT compared to sites less used by reindeer, although we did not find any direct relationship between ALT and reindeer use. Low use of tall Salix habitats indicated that reindeer are unlikely to suppress the growth of already tall-erect woody taxa, while they exert maximum pressure in areas where shrubs are already low in stature, e.g. ridgetops. Reindeer ability to suppress the regrowth and expansion of woody taxa in landslide areas (i.e. concavities) seems limited, as these types were less used. Our results suggest that reindeer use of the landscape and hence their effects on the landscape correlates with the landscape structure. Future research is needed to evaluate the role and efficiency of reindeer as ecosystem engineers capable of mediating the effects of climate change.