Protected Areas As Refugees For Elephants. (1986)

Attempts to determine if vegetation types of Africa are adequately covered in the existing protected areas system. The elephant, which can exist within a very wide range of vegetation types, makes a particularly suitable indicator species because it is large and conspicious, and data on its distribution can be easily collected from both air and ground surveys. Results of distribution mapped from the 1979 African Elephant Survey and Conservation Programme and the protected areas were superimposed on White's vegetation map of Africa. The percentage of current elephant range and the total area for each vegetation zone within the biogeographical units were measured as were the extend of the protected areas. These figures served to determine the percentage of the remaining elephant range protected within each of the units.