ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Conserv. Sci.

Sec. Animal Conservation

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2025.1582057

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Link Between Habitat Requirements, Conservation and Management of Wild and Feral EquidsView all articles

Conservation of the endangered Grevy's zebra: The influence of land use patterns on distribution and abundance in Samburu-Laikipia landscape, Kenya

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
  • 2Maasai Mara University, School of Resource Resources, Environmental Studies and Agriculture, P.O. Box 861-20500 Narok, Kenya, Narok, Kenya
  • 3Maasai Mara University, Narok, Kenya

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The seasonal distribution and abundance of Grevy's zebra was studied in Samburu-Laikipia landscape. The aim was to understand how anthropogenic activities combined with seasonal weather patterns influence Grevy's zebra abundance and distribution. Distance sampling was used to estimate Grevy's zebra and cattle densities while vegetation structure and composition was measured using selected random line transects. Our analysis showed nonuniform distributions of Grevy's zebra across the Samburu-Laikipia ecosystem largely driven by seasonal changes in vegetation quality and quantity driven by seasonal rainfall patterns and pastoralist herder use. Grevy's zebras were found at higher densities and larger herds on community lands during wet periods when livestock grazing was heavy, stimulating grass growth and producing short, high quality swards. During dry periods, Grevy's zebras moved to protected areas, commercial ranches and conservancies where lower levels of year-round grazing produced tall grass banks composed of swards of low-quality vegetation that zebras as hindgut fermenters can process. This suggests that pastoralist herd activity in conjunction with season rainfall patterns shape Grevy's zebra movements at a landscape level. While most reproductive classes of Grevy's zebras occurred together in large herds during wet seasons mostly on pastoral grazing lands, during dry periods only territorial males, lactating females and their foals were found together with herds that tended to be small. Bachelor males, non-lactating females and juveniles generally spread themselves evenly over the landscape, perhaps a way of reducing competition during times of food scarcity or to secure mating. Conservation strategies for successfully increasing survival of all Grevy's zebra age classes will require maintaining a mixture of rapidly growing grass swards during wet seasons and grass bank reserves during dry seasons at regional scale in order to enable seasonal movements across land use patterns driven by alternating rainfall periods. In the past, people have been perceived as part of the "Grevy's zebra Problem". We show going forward, they can become part of the solution.

Keywords: distance sampling, density, grazing, movements, Pastoralist

Received: 23 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Rubenstein and Joseph Nderitu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Daniel I Rubenstein, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States

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