Studies investigating animal movement and habitat use are essential for wildlife management and conservation. Northern Botswana represents some of the least modified landscapes in Africa. Studying the seasonal habitat use of herbivores in these landscapes provides important baseline information with which to compare the behavioural responses of similar species occurring in anthropogenically modified landscapes. We report on the home range extent and habitat use of roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) in a region of northern Botswana unaffected by artificial water and fences. We deployed Global Positioning System (GPS) collars on individuals in four roan antelope herds in northern Botswana, three herds in the drier northern section of Botswana and one herd in the wetter Okavango Delta. Herds in the drier northern section occupied larger home ranges (>50 km²) than did herds in the wetter Okavango Delta (<50 km²). All herds preferred specific core areas (all smaller than 20 km²) within their home ranges. All herds had similar location and size of home range between the wet and dry season (non-migratory). All herds occurred in back-country sandveld areas dominated by either Kalahari apple-leaf (Philenoptera nelsii) or silver cluster-leaf (Terminalia sericea) woodlands with low densities of competitors and predators. In Botswana, the long-term persistence of free-roaming roan antelope herds likely depends on the preservation of these unmodified back-country habitats away from permanent water.

调查动物运动和栖息地利用的研究对于野生动物管理和保护至关重要。博茨瓦纳北部代表了非洲一些变化最少的景观。研究这些景观中食草动物的季节性栖息地使用提供了重要的基线信息，可用于比较在人为改造的景观中发生的类似物种的行为反应。我们报告了罗恩羚羊（Hippotragus equinus ）的栖息地范围和栖息地利用) 在博茨瓦纳北部不受人工水和围栏影响的地区。我们在博茨瓦纳北部的四头野羚羊群、博茨瓦纳较干燥的北部地区的三头羚羊和较为潮湿的奥卡万戈三角洲的一头羚羊中部署了全球定位系统 (GPS) 项圈。牛群在干燥器北段占用更大的活动范围（>50公里²）比在牛群做湿润Okavango Delta的（<50公里²）。所有畜群都喜欢在其栖息地范围内的特定核心区域（均小于 20 km ²）。所有牛群在雨季和旱季（非迁徙）之间具有相似的位置和家庭范围。所有畜群都发生在以喀拉哈里苹果叶（Philenoptera nelsii）为主的偏远地区沙地地区) 或银簇叶 ( Terminalia sericea ) 林地，竞争者和捕食者的密度较低。在博茨瓦纳，自由漫游的马羚羊群的长期存在可能取决于保护这些未经改造的偏远地区栖息地远离永久水域。