Skip to content

Waterbuck Used Urban Corridors More Often but Overlapped Less With People in Botswana

Waterbuck drinking in Chobe National Park, Botswana
Research · Ecology

A study published in 2026 found that waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) used wildlife corridors differently in urban and agricultural parts of Botswana’s Chobe District. Camera-trap data showed a higher probability of daily waterbuck presence in urban corridors, even though the animals overlapped less in time with people there.

Researchers monitored six wildlife corridors: three in the urban Kasane–Kazungula landscape and three in the agricultural Chobe Enclave. Motion-activated cameras recorded wildlife and human activity, allowing the team to compare both how often ten mammal species appeared in the corridors and how closely their daily activity overlapped with people.

Urban corridors had higher waterbuck presence but lower overlap with people

For waterbuck, the estimated probability of daily presence was 9 percentage points higher in the urban corridors. At the same time, the estimated temporal overlap between waterbuck and people was 7.2% in urban corridors, compared with 17.4% in agricultural corridors.

Waterbuck were therefore among the species showing contrasting responses to the two human-dominated landscapes. The broader study found that species did not respond uniformly: some were more likely to occur in agricultural corridors, while waterbuck and warthog had higher daily presence in urban corridors. Six non-elephant species, including waterbuck, showed greater temporal overlap with people in agricultural areas.

Corridor differences cannot be attributed to people alone

The authors note that differences between corridor types can reflect more than human influence alone, including variation in resources, animal densities and other ecological factors. They also acknowledge that the camera setup was originally designed to detect elephants and may therefore favour larger-bodied species. The urban and agricultural corridors were monitored in different periods, although the researchers argue that demographic and development changes in the agricultural landscape were small enough that this was unlikely to substantially alter the interpretation.

The study concludes that wildlife corridors cannot be expected to function identically for every species. Because waterbuck and other mammals responded differently to the surrounding land use, the researchers argue that conservation and land-use planning should take species-specific corridor use into account.

Sources and image credit

  1. Adams, T. S. F., Leggett, K., Chase, M. J., & Tucker, M. A. (2026). Impacts of human development on wildlife use of corridors in Botswana. Integrative Conservation, 5(1), 164–171. https://doi.org/10.1002/inc3.70073

Image: Waterbuck drinking in Chobe National Park, Botswana. Photo: Diego Delso — waterbuck in Chobe National Park, Botswana. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.