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Stable isotope ecology of black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) in Kenya

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Abstract

Stable isotope and elemental ratios in hair are influenced by the environment, including both climate and geology. Stable carbon isotopes can be used to give estimates of the C4/CAM fraction of diets of herbivorous mammals; stable nitrogen isotopes are related to the local water deficit; strontium isotopes are determined by the local geology. We studied hair from rhinos in Kenya to determine spatial patterns in δ13C, δ15N, and 87Sr/86Sr ratios. The samples of rhino hair were collected during Kenya Wildlife Service translocation or veterinary activities. δ13C values showed diets dominated by C3 foods, but in some regions the diet, at least seasonally, contained significant quantities (i.e., > ca. 20%) of C4/CAM foods. δ15N values were related to water deficit, with higher δ15N values in regions with high water deficit. 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios were found to be related to the local geological substrate suggesting that 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios are provisionally useful for determining the origins of illegal wildlife materials in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the members of Kenya Wildlife Service for assistance in collecting rhino hair samples, Truman Young and Meave Leakey for collecting plant samples, and Nicholas Georgiadis for water and temperature data from the Laikipia region. We thank the government of Kenya for permission to do this work. We thank IsoForensics for making the Neptune MC-ICP-MS available for this study. This work was done under CITES permits US831854, US053837/9, US159997/9, and US08996A/9. Dr. Samuel Andanje died on 4 May 2015 while this manuscript was in the initial stages of preparation; the living authors are grateful to him for his work on this project.

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  1. Samuel A. Andanje: Deceased.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Thure E. Cerling, Christopher R. Anderson, Diego P. Fernandez, Lihai Hu & Shawn J. Thomas

  2. Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Thure E. Cerling

  3. Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Samuel A. Andanje, Francis Gakuya, John M. Kariuki, Linus Kariuki, Jackson W. Kingoo, Cedric Khayale & Isaac Lekolool

  4. Department of Geography, Kenyatta University, PO Box 43844-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Anthony N. Macharia

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Contributions

TEC and SAA conceived and designed the experiments. TEC, SAA, FG, JMK, LK, JWK, CK, IL, and ANM carried out the field work and laboratory analyses were performed by ANM, CRA, DPF, LH, and SJT. TEC, SAA, and DPF analyzed the data. TEC and SAA wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thure E. Cerling.

Additional information

Communicated by Joy K. Ward.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (XLSX 44 kb) Appendix SI 1. Data on individual histories of rhinos sampled in this study

442_2018_4185_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary material 2 (XLSX 114 kb) Appendix SI II. δ13C and δ15N values of sequential hair samples for 7 rhinos from Kenya; diet input δ13C and δ15N values, and estimated fraction of C4/CAM in diet calculated as described in text

442_2018_4185_MOESM3_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary material 3 (XLSX 48 kb) Appendix SI III. δ13C, δ15N, and C/N ratios of plants collected from the regions of study from 1997 to 2007

442_2018_4185_MOESM4_ESM.docx

Supplementary material 4 (DOCX 91 kb) Table SI 1. δ13C, δ15N, and 87Sr/86Sr of bulk hair samples from black rhinos in this study

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Supplementary material 5 (DOCX 45 kb) Table SI 2. Average δ13C and δ15N values for plants from Laikipia, Nairobi, and Tsavo regions collected between 1997 and 2007

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Supplementary material 6 (DOCX 99 kb) Table SI 3. δ13C and δ18O of teeth from rhinos (Diceros bicornis), elephant (Loxodonta africana), Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchelli), and giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) from Tsavo East National Park, all from approximately 1970. δ13C1750 is the δ13C value corrected to 1750 due the change in the δ13C of the atmosphere due to fossil fuel burning (NOAA, 2017); percent C4 is calculated assuming the average δ13C values for equids and giraffe represent pure C4 and pure C3 diets, respectively and assuming all taxa have the same isotope enrichment factor for diet to enamel (see Cerling et al., 1999)

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Cerling, T.E., Andanje, S.A., Gakuya, F. et al. Stable isotope ecology of black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) in Kenya. Oecologia 187, 1095–1105 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4185-4

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