Historically, livestock ranching and biodiversity conservation have been considered conflicting uses of African savannas because wildlife and livestock compete for grazing resources and exchange pathogens and parasites. The most common method for reducing these conflicts was through land management approaches to reduce contact between livestock and wildlife. However, recent research demonstrates potential positive interactions between wildlife and livestock from a savanna ecosystem in central Kenya. For example, livestock treated with acaricide may offer the unintended benefit of removing ticks from the landscape. When humans derive financial benefits from livestock, through food production, and from wildlife, through tourism, they may achieve greater economic stability than when income is derived solely from one source. Thus the integrated management of livestock and wildlife may simultaneously optimize human health and wildlife conservation, if co-benefits hold across a range of conditions. We conducted surveys of 23 properties (mean: 14,196 ha ± 2,023 standard error of the mean) in Laikipia County, Kenya, to determine several ecological consequences of land management strategies that emphasize either livestock production, wildlife tourism, or a combination of the two.
Results/Conclusions
Our investigations demonstrate at several different spatial scales that cattle dramatically reduce the abundance of host-seeking nymphal and adult ticks, the two stages responsible for transmitting a multitude of tick-borne pathogens. Cattle reduce tick abundance apparently because of the widespread use of acaricides for livestock production. However, benefits to wildlife arising from the effects of livestock on ticks could be counterbalanced by costs if livestock and wildlife compete for forage. Based on vegetation surveys, the total quantity of grass (g/m2) was equally high on integrated properties and wildlife properties, and both had significantly more grass than livestock properties. Additionally, wildlife-livestock integration may not be economically feasible if integrated properties are less profitable. Economically integrated properties had a greater total diversity of income streams compared to either livestock or wildlife properties, were not significantly less likely to have profitable livestock operations than livestock properties, and were not significantly less likely to have a profitable/break-even tourism operation than wildlife properties. These findings, in combination with other recent research from this region, indicates that integrated management of livestock and wildlife has the potential to simultaneously optimize human health and wildlife conservation under some conditions.