UHURU Revisited: A 2019 Assessment on the Impact of Large Mammalian Herbivore Removal Across a Rainfall Gradient in Kenya

Abstract

As human society continues to develop, human actions increasingly begin to alter the natural environments around them. Large mammalian herbivores (LMH) in particular are threatened to a high degree; they are vulnerable to anthropogenic population decline, since anthropogenic declines typically occur in a size-biased order. Thus, LMH are important to study as climate change, overexploitation, and disease transmission continue to threaten their levels. For this purpose UHURU was established; it aims to understand the effects of LMH removal in their environment across a rainfall gradient. The study uses a series of exclusion plots that selectively remove classes of LMH based on size from their environment. Using data from the 11-year-old study, I seek to examine the interplay between rainfall levels and LMH exclusion on animal abundance, tree growth, and lianainfested tree frequency to determine the future of the African savannah and other ecosystems.