Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park
Data files
Sep 21, 2024 version files 4.82 KB
Abstract
A population of Masai giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) occurs in Arusha National Park (ANP), which is not part of the regular Tanzanian national wildlife monitoring scheme. Urban development of Arusha city and agricultural expansion have contributed to the increasing isolation of ANP from other protected areas in northern Tanzania. The only published data on the Masai giraffe population of ANP were individual-based data collected in 1979 and 1980. Here, we used individual-based data from 2021 to 2022 to provide an update on the current population size, population sex and age structure, movements, and genetic connectivity of giraffes in ANP. We documented a 49% population decline and changes in the age distribution, adult sex ratio, reproductive rate, and movement patterns relative to the previous study. Mitochondrial DNA analysis revealed genetic connectivity between ANP and other populations east of the Gregory Rift Escarpments in northern Tanzania and south-eastern Kenya, evidence that the Masai giraffe once moved widely across the landscape.
README: Masai giraffe population change over 40 years in Arusha National Park
Description of the Data and file structure
This file contains mitochondrial DNA data, short fragments of DNA sequences obtained from the cytochrome B gene (cytb) within the mitochondrial DNA of the Masai Giraffe. We only sequenced a fragment which is 1140 bp. For each Sequence in the FASTA format, we included the name of the sequence and the location where that data was collected. For Example, TNP208|Tarangire means sample 208 from Tarangire National Park (TNP). All other abbreviations have been described in the open-access article (Lee et al., 2023). In this data set, we have included all unique haplotypes used in the analysis.
Sharing/Access Information
Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data:
We compared our data with already published data (Brown et al., 2007 GenBank Accession number EU088329.1-EU088342.1) and OP442601–OP442932 Lohay et al., 2023.