Human footprint and rainfall shape Masai giraffe's habitat suitability and connectivity in a multiple‐use landscape

A giraffe's route between national parks may depend on a livestock ranch. In the Tsavo–Mkomazi landscape spanning Kenya and Tanzania, community ranches occupy land between major protected areas. Those spaces could help keep giraffe habitat connected, even where most suitable habitat lies inside park boundaries.

Amos Muthiuru and colleagues combined a June 2021 aerial survey with satellite-based information about rainfall, vegetation, terrain and human modification of the landscape. They used 1,208 occupied map cells to model where Masai giraffes were likely to find suitable habitat. They then treated less suitable land as harder to cross and calculated possible connections between seven major habitat areas, including routes through community ranches.

Human modification was the strongest predictor of suitability, followed by rainfall. About 17% of the habitat classified as suitable lay outside protected areas, mainly on community ranches. The connectivity models highlighted ranchland connections and Tsavo West's position between other major habitat blocks. These were predicted routes built from dry-season presence data, not journeys confirmed by tracking individual giraffes. Their value is to identify places where maintaining usable land could keep protected populations connected. A park can contain good habitat while still depending on decisions made beyond its boundary.