Monitoring African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) and cattle (Bos taurus) movement across a damaged veterinary control fence at a Southern African wildlife/livestock interface

We test the extent to which fence damage or fence permeability (resulting from human and elephant damage) influences patterns of cattle and buffalo movement at the periphery of Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe. We used spoor data to detect and compare the frequency of cattle and buffalo movement across the fence boundary. Results show that spoor proportions for cattle were significantly higher on fence partially damaged by humans than buffalo spoor. Conversely, buffalo spoor proportions were significantly higher on sections with totally removed fence as a result of elephant damage. Results suggest that cattle and buffalo use different sections of the damaged fence. Resume Nous testons dans quelle mesure les degâts causes aux clotures ou la permeabilite de celles-ci (resultant de l'action des hommes ou des elephants) influencent les schemas des deplacements du betail et des buffles a la peripherie du Parc National de Gonarezhou, au Zimbabwe. Nous avons utilise les donnees sur les traces pour detecter et comparer la frequence des passages du betail et des buffles a travers la cloture marquant la limite. Les resultats montrent que la proportion de traces de betail etait significativement plus grande a travers les clotures partiellement endommagees par les hommes que celles de buffles. Inversement, la proportion de traces de buffles etait significativement plus grande dans les sections ou la cloture avait ete completement enlevee suite aux actions des elephants. Les resultats suggerent que betail et buffles traversent differentes sections de la cloture endommagee.