1a). During the late dry season, bush savanna associated with finer-grained sandstone became most strongly favoured, along with increased use of C. mopane tree savanna on shale and mudstone, particularly in the wetter of the 2 years. Zebra strongly favoured the open bush savanna associated with basaltic soils, the most widely prevalent vegetation type, throughout the year (Fig. 1b). Buffalo showed a broadly distributed use of habitat

types during the wet season, but concentrated strongly in the granitic region near the river during the dry season, most especially in the drier year (Fig. 1c). Both sable and zebra foraged mainly in upland regions of the landscape throughout the dry season (Fig. 2a). Buffalo concentrated in slope regions in the early dry season and made greater use of lowland near the river during the late dry season. Sable and zebra entered this lowland only to drink from pools in the river. SCH772984 clinical trial The foraging areas of GSK2126458 zebra were usually more open with shorter trees than those occupied by sable (Fig. 2b). However, tree canopy cover and height in the foraging areas of buffalo were very similar to those for sable. Grass height

in foraging areas was generally in the range 41–80 cm for all three grazers, with no seasonal variation (Fig. 2c). The grassland tended to be greener than in the foraging areas of sable than in those of zebra and buffalo in the early dry season, but this distinction fell away during the late dry season when very little green grass remained (Fig. 2d). The model incorporating both grass greenness

and tree canopy cover best distinguished the foraging areas of sable from those zebra, although the model with greenness replaced by season was almost equally supported (Table 1a). For the sable–buffalo comparison, the best supported model included only grass greenness as a distinguishing feature, but with some support for an interaction with season (Table 1b). Either tree cover or topography was the most strongly supported distinction between the foraging areas of zebra and buffalo (Table 1c). Acceptance of the grass at feeding sites was more strongly influenced by grass greenness for sable than was the case for both zebra (G2 = 91.6, d.f. = 3, P < 0.001) and buffalo others (G2 = 116.0, d.f. = 3, P < 0.001) (Fig. 3a). Zebra appeared somewhat indifferent to distinctions in greenness in their grass acceptance throughout the dry season, while buffalo showed an inconsistent response to grass greenness in the early dry season, and foraged solely in sites containing little or no green grass during the late dry season. During the late dry season, sites containing grass that was more than 10% green were present only in the feeding sites of sable. Sable differed from both zebra (G2 = 94.08, d.f. = 2, P < 0.001) and buffalo (G2 = 43.96, d.f. = 2, P < 0.001) in the influence of grass height on acceptance.