In an area of northern Botswana roughly the size of Yellowstone National Park, 15,000 elephants compete with 15,000 people for access to water, food, and land.

Scientific articles

Buchholtz EK, Redmore L,Fitzgerald LA, Stronza A, Songhurst A and McCulloch G (2019) TemporalPartitioning and Overlapping Use of a Shared Natural Resource by Peopleand Elephants.Front. Ecol. Evol. 7:117
Buchholtz, E. K., L. Fitzgerald, A. Songhurst, G. McCulloch, and A. Stronza. 2019a. Overlapping landscape utilization by elephants and people in the Western Okavango Panhandle: implications for conflict and conservation. Landscape Ecology34(6):1411-1423
Buchholtz, E. K., L. Fitzgerald, A. Songhurst, G. P. McCulloch, and A. L. Stronza. 2020. Experts and elephants: local ecological knowledge predicts landscape use for a species involved in human-wildlife conflict. Ecology and Society25(4):26.
Buchholtz, E. K., A. L. Stronza. A. Songhurst, G. P. McCulloch, and L. Fitzgerald. 2020. Using landscape connectivity to predict human-wildlife conflict. Biological Conservation, 248: 1-9.
Buchholtz EK, Spragg S, Songhurst A, Stronza A, McCulloch G, Fitzgerald LA. 2021. Anthropogenic impact on wildlife resource use: Spatial and temporal shifts in elephants’ access to water. Afr J Ecol. 2021;00:1–10
Buchholtz, E.K., McDaniels, M., McCulloch, G., Songhurst, A., and Stronza., A. (2022). A mixed methids assessment of human-elephant conflict in the Western Okavango Panhandle, Botswana. People and Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-023-00390-4.
Hofman, M.P.G., M. W. Hayward, M. Heim, P. Marchand, C. M. Rolandsen, J. Mattisson, F. Urbano, M. Heurich, A. Mysterud, J. Melzheimer, N. Morellet, U. Voigt, B. L. Allen, B. Gehr, C. Rouco, W. Ullmann, Ø. Holand, N.H. Jørgensen, G. Steinheim, F. Cagnacci, M. Kroeschel, P. Kaczensky, B. Buuveibaatar, J. C. Payne, I. Palmegiani, K. Jerina, P. Kjellander, O. Johansson, S. LaPoint, R. Bayrakcismith, J. D. C. Linnell, M. Zaccaroni, M. L. S. Jorge, J. E. F. Oshima, A. Songhurst, C. Fischer, R. T. Mc Bride, Jr., J. J. Thompson, S. Streif, R. Sandfort, C. Bonenfant, M. Drouilly, M. Klapproth, D. Zinner, R. Yarnell, A. Stronza, L. Wilmott, E. Meisingset, M. Thaker, A. T. Vanak, S. Nicoloso55, R. Graeber, S. Said, M. R. Boudreau, A. Devlin, R. Hoogesteijn, J. A. May-Junior, J. C. Nifong, J. Odden, H. B. Quigley, F. Tortato, D. M. Parker, A. Caso, J. Perrine, C. Tellaeche, F. Zieba, T. Zwijacz-Kozica, C. L. Appel, I. Axsom, W. T. Bean, B. Cristescu, S. Pe´riquet, K. J. Teichman, S. Karpanty, A. Licoppe, V. Menges, K. Black, T. L. Scheppers, S. C. Schai-Braun, F. C. Azevedo, F. G. Lemos, A. Payne, L. H. Swanepoel, B. V. Weckworth, A. Berger, A. Bertassoni, G. McCulloch, P.Sˇ ustr, V. Athreya, D. Bockmuhl, J. Casaer, A. Ekori, D. Melovski1, C. Richard-Hansen, D. van de Vyver, R. Reyna-Hurtado, E. Robardet, N. Selva, A. Sergiel, M. S. Farhadinia, P. Sunde, R. Portas, H. Ambarli, R. Berzins, P. M. Kappeler, G. K. Mann, L. Pyritz, C. Bissett, T. Grant, R. Steinmetz, L. Swedell, R. J. Welch, D. Armenteras (2019) Right on track? Performance of satellite telemetry in terrestrial wildlife research. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0216223. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216223.
Naidoo R, Beytell P, Brennan A,Kilian W, McCulloch G, Stronza A,Taylor R, Tsholofelo C andSonghurst A (2022) Challenges toElephant Connectivity From BorderFences in the World’s LargestTransfrontier Conservation Area.Front. Conserv. Sci. 3:788133.
Pozo RA, Coulson T, McCulloch G, Stronza AL, Songhurst AC(2017). Determining baselines for human-elephant conflict: A matter of time. PLoS ONE 12(6):e0178840.
Pozo RA, Coulson T, McCulloch G, Stronza AL, Songhurst AC. 2017b. Chilli-briquettes modify the temporal behaviour of elephants, but not their numbers. Oryx. doi:10.1017/S00306053170012
Pozo, R.A., Cusack, J.J., McCulloch, G., Stronza, A., Songhurst, A., Coulson, T., 2018. Elephant space-use is not a good predictor of crop-damage. Biol. Conserv. 228,241–251.
Redmore L., Stronza A., Songhurst A. and McCulloch G. (2018) Which Way Forward? Past and New Perspectives on Community-Based Conservation in the Anthropocene. In: Dominick A. DellaSala, and Michael I. Goldstein(eds.) The Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene,vol. 3, p. 453-460. Oxford: Elsevier
Redmore L., Katholo I., Sene-Harper, A., Songhurst A., McCulloch G., and Stronza A., (2023). The Village, the Elephant, and the State: Land Access and Vulnerabilityin Rural Botswana. Human Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-023-00390-4.
Songhurst, A (2017). Measuring conflict – comparing insights from a standardized IUCN protocol with those obtained using government approaches, Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Songhurst, A, G. McCulloch & T. Coulson (2015). Finding pathways to human-elephant coexistence: a risky business, Oryx, 1-8.
Songhurst, A, M. Chase & T. Coulson (2015). Using Simulations of past and present elephant (Loxodonta africana) population numbers in the Okavango Delta Panhandle, Botswana to improve future population estimates, Wetlands Ecology and Management, 23 (3), 1-20.
Songhurst, A & T. Coulson (2014). Exploring the effects of spatial autocorrelation when identifying key drivers of wildlife crop-raiding. Ecology and Evolution, 4 (5), 582-593.
Vogel, S. M., W. F. de Boer, M. Masake, A. C. Songhurst, G. McCulloch, A. Stronza, M. D. Henley, and T. Coulson. 2019. Do African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) eat crops because they crave micronutrients? Bio Rxiv 673392.
Vogel SM, Lambert B, Songhurst AC, McCulloch GP, Stronza AL, Coulson T. Exploring movement decisions: Can Bayesian movement-state models explain crop consumption behaviour in elephants (Loxodonta africana)?. J Anim Ecol. 2020; 00:1–14
Vogel, S.M., de Boer, W.F., Blumenthal, S.A., Masake, M., Songhurst, A.C., McCulloch, G., Stronza, A.L., Henley, M.D., Coulson, T. (2020). Timing of dietary switching by savannah elephants in relation to crop consumption, Biological Conservation, 249.