Role of interspecific interactions in the functioning of communities of African large mammals

The importance of taking into account interspecific interactions (including non-trophic and positive interactions) and their indirect interactions (chains of interactions and modifications of interactions) in the functioning of communities has been underlined by theoretical and experimental work, in particular to understand the impacts of environmental changes. The empirical research I have contributed to for 20 years on large African mammal communities in the Hwange ecosystem, a CNRS Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research site in Zimbabwe, illustrates the importance of considering the multitude of interspecific interactions to understand the functioning of natural communities and the response of these communities to human activities and global changes. In this seminar, I will present results about (1) the behavioural ecology of predator-prey relationships in a multi-species context, (2) the role of elephants in the ecology of other mammals, and (3) the influence of water management, trophy hunting, human disturbance and global changes on interspecific interactions.