Investigating the decline of an ecologically, economically, and culturally significant bushveld savanna tree species

Currently, the marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) is undergoing population declines in the bushveld savanna ecosystems of Southern Africa. This decline is often blamed on elephants, as marula is one of their favorite food sources and elephants have a significant impact on woody vegetation. That said, much of this decline is driven by lack of recruitment of marula trees into the populations rather than adult mortality. Elephants do not target small trees and are primary seed dispersers for marula, so would not cause a lack of recruitment. We are tracking elephant impact on adult marula trees as well as utilizing a multi-pronged approach to better understand which factors and species are leading to the lack of recruitment.