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About the Authors:
Marissa A. Ahlering
* E-mail: [email protected]
¶¤ Current address: The Nature Conservancy, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America
Affiliations Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America, Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, District of Colombia, United States of America, African Conservation Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
Lori S. Eggert
Affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America
David Western
Affiliation: African Conservation Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
Anna Estes
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America
Linus Munishi
Affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Society, Tarangire Elephant Project, Arusha, Tanzania
Robert Fleischer
Affiliation: Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, District of Colombia, United States of America
Melissa Roberts
Affiliations Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, District of Colombia, United States of America, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington District of Colombia, United States of America
Jesus E. Maldonado
Affiliations Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, District of Colombia, United States of America, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington District of Colombia, United States of America
Introduction
African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) once ranged across much of the African continent [1], [2], but the increase in human population, and resulting habitat loss, fragmentation and continuous poaching for ivory, have resulted in dramatic population declines and isolation. Populations in Kenya were particularly hard hit by illegal killing in the 1970s and 1980s prior to the ivory ban [3], [4], causing extreme fragmentation and isolation of elephant populations as they retreated into protected areas. This anthropogenic isolation has created a metapopulation structure for elephants in Kenya and Tanzania. Recently, however, elephant numbers in protected areas have begun to rise [5], increasing the potential for elephants to expand their movements into more human-dominated landscapes. In southern Kenya, elephants have begun recolonizing community-owned conservation areas, and understanding where these elephants came from will help identify movement corridors for conservation and management purposes in the region.
Genetic information is often...