DOI: 10.5061/dryad.p1v07
title: Data from: Resource selection and landscape change reveal mechanisms suppressing population recovery for the world's most endangered antelope

description: Understanding how bottom-up and top-down forces affect resource selection
 can inform restoration efforts. With a global population size of
 &lt;500 individuals, the hirola Beatragus hunteri is the world's
 most endangered antelope, with a declining population since the 1970s.
 While the underlying mechanisms are unclear, some combination of habitat
 loss and predation are thought to be responsible for low abundances of
 contemporary populations. Efforts to conserve hirola are hindered by a
 lack of understanding as to why population density remains low, despite
 eradication of the viral disease, rinderpest. To elucidate factors
 underlying chronically low numbers, we examined resource selection and
 landscape change within the hirola's native range. Because hirola are
 grazers, we hypothesized that the availability of open areas would be
 linked both to forage and safety from predators. We quantified: (1)
 changes in tree cover across the hirola's historical range in eastern
 Kenya over the past 27 years; (2) how tree cover has influenced resource
 selection by hirola; and (3) interactions between tree cover and
 predation. Between 1985 and 2012, tree cover increased by 251% across the
 historical range of hirola. Tree encroachment was associated with a 98%
 decline of hirola and elephant Loxodonta africana populations, a 74%
 decline in cattle Bos indicus, an increase in browsing livestock by 327%,
 and a reduction in rainfall. Although hirola avoided tree cover, we found
 no evidence that predation on hirola increased with increasing tree cover.
 Synthesis and applications. Hirola may qualify as a refugee species, in
 which contemporary populations are restricted to suboptimal habitat and
 exhibit low survival, reproduction, or both. The extinction of hirola
 would be the first of a mammalian genus on the African continent in modern
 history. We conclude that contemporary low numbers of hirola are due at
 least partly to habitat loss via tree encroachment, triggered by some
 combination of elephant extirpation, overgrazing, drought, and perhaps
 fire suppression. We recommend a combination of rangeland restoration
 efforts (including conservation of elephants, manual clearing of trees,
 and grass seeding), increased enforcement of an existing protected area
 (Arawale National Reserve), and reintroductions to enhance recovery for
 this endangered species. These efforts will rely on enhanced support from
 the international conservation community and the cooperation of
 pastoralist communities with which the hirola coexist.
description: Livestock, Cattle,
 elephants abundance in hirola's range_77_2011This is aerial survey
 data from the Department of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing Kenya from
 1977 to 2011 to give historical estimates wildlife and livestock
 abundances. We estimated the trends of livestock, hirola, elephants
 abundances from this data.Masalani_daily
 rainfallThe rainfall data file
 contains daily rainfall observations for Masalani station in the centre of
 hirola's geographic range for the period from
 1970-2009.Hirolacollardatamay2nd
 2015The hirola collar data
 contains the telemetry data of collared hirola individuals within the
 hirola's geographic range. Note: due to the sensitive nature of the
 data, GPS location information for the critically endangered Beatragus
 hunteri have been removed from the dataset.Imagery
 analysisP166R61zip contains
 details of the imagery analysis (1985 and 2012) for the hirola's
 geographic range.P166R61_zip.zipHirolakillsites_2015Hirola kill sites data contains observed hirola kill sites collected by network of scouts within the hirola's geographic range. Note: due to the sensitive nature of the data, GPS location information for the critically endangered Beatragus hunteri have been removed from the dataset.