BACKGROUND Assessing wildlife movements and habitat use is important for species conservation and management and can be informative for understanding population dynamics. The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania has been declining, and little was known about the movement, habitat selection, and space use of the population, which is important for understanding possible reasons behind the decline. A total of 12 African buffalo cows from four different herds were collared with satellite transmitters. Movements were assessed over 2 years from 11 animals. RESULTS The space use of the individual collared buffaloes as an approximation of the 95% home range size estimated using Brownian bridge models, ranged from 73 to 601 km2. The estimated home ranges were larger in the wet season than in the dry season. With the exception of one buffalo all collared animals completed a wet season migration of varying distances. A consistent pattern of seasonal movement was observed with one herd, whereas the other herds did not behave the same way in the two wet seasons that they were tracked. Herd splitting and herd switching occurred on multiple occasions. Buffaloes strongly associated with habitats near the Great Ruaha River in the dry season and had little association to permanent water sources in the wet season. Daily movements averaged 4.6 km (standard deviation, SD = 2.6 km), with the longest distances traveled during November (mean 6.9 km, SD = 3.6 km) at the end of the dry season and beginning of the wet season. The shortest daily distances traveled occurred in the wet season in April-June (mean 3.6 km, SD = 1.6-1.8 km). CONCLUSION The Great Ruaha River has experienced significant drying in the last decades due to water diversions upstream, which likely has reduced the suitable range for buffaloes. The loss of dry season habitat due to water scarcity has likely contributed to the population decline of the Ruaha buffaloes.

中文翻译：

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非洲水牛在坦桑尼亚鲁阿哈国家公园的季节性运动和栖息地利用。

背景技术评估野生动植物的活动和栖息地的使用对于物种的保护和管理很重要，并且对于了解种群动态可能是有益的。坦桑尼亚鲁阿哈国家公园的非洲水牛种群数量一直在下降，对该种群的移动，栖息地选择和空间利用知之甚少，这对于理解下降原因可能很重要。来自四个不同牧群的总共12头非洲水牛母牛被卫星发射器束缚。在两年内评估了11只动物的运动。结果使用布朗桥模型估算的单个带颈野牛的空间使用量约为房屋范围的95％，范围从73到601 km2。雨季的估计房屋范围比旱季的大。除一只水牛外，所有圈养动物都完成了不同距离的雨季迁徙。在一个牧群中观察到一致的季节性运动模式，而在追踪的两个雨季中，其他牧群的行为方式不同。牛群分裂和牛群切换发生了多次。水牛在旱季与大鲁阿哈河附近的栖息地密切相关，在雨季与永久水源几乎没有关联。每日运动平均为4.6 km（标准差，SD = 2.6 km），其中在旱季结束和雨季开始时，11月的行驶距离最长（平均6.9 km，SD = 3.6 km）。每天旅行的最短距离发生在4月至6月的雨季（平均3.6公里，SD = 1.6-1.8公里）。结论在过去的几十年中，大鲁阿哈河由于上游引水而严重干旱，这很可能减少了水牛的适宜范围。由于缺水造成的旱季生境丧失可能导致了鲁阿哈水牛的种群减少。