#Pacific pocket mouse drivers#
This elephant population is exhibiting behavioral plasticity and shifting their gardening efforts to a novel resource in the grasslands as opposed to their standard role in the forests, which is key to understanding their impact as ecosystem drivers within this landscape. The forest elephants play a distinctive role within this tropical grassland when compared to other megaherbivores and utilize the unique ecosystem throughout the year. However, males were greater risk‐takers, entering the human‐altered landscape to forage on fruit. In the early wet season, these typically frugivorous forest elephants were consuming mostly grasses in both the woodland and grassland habitats and showing no sexual dimorphism in diet selection when in the same habitats. Ecological patterns of diet were also revealed using a taxonomically free exact sequence variance approach, highlighting useability in a poorly characterized region. Fecal samples represented the diet of individuals within each habitat, providing valuable insight into the plant biodiversity.
![pacific pocket mouse pacific pocket mouse](https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/o8u/o8uhxq-b88732941z.120160615203238000goih4ul3.20.jpg)
Dietary niche partitioning was assessed among megaherbivores in the grasslands. GPS collar data were used to determine annual habitat use. In the ecotone between the Guinea‐Congolian forest and Sudanian‐Guinean savanna ecosystems in Garamba National Park, DRC, we investigated forest elephant diet selection as a function of sex, age, and habitat using diet DNA (dDNA) metabarcoding of non‐invasively collected dung. The presence and diets of forest elephants on grasslands and the potential maintenance of these systems remain largely unexplored.
![pacific pocket mouse pacific pocket mouse](https://listabuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Pacific-Pocket-Mouse-e1438701355831.jpg)
The recently distinguished and critically endangered forest elephant is currently classified as a selective, non‐destructive frugivorous browser that maintains forest diversity, while the savanna elephant is a mixed feeder, often pushing over trees while maintaining grasslands. Elephants are essential ecological engineers, creating and maintaining landscape structure and ecosystem function.