Episode 9.7: Understanding African ecosystems through antelopes and elephants
Discover how Mozambique’s civil war altered animal behavior, reshaped ecosystems and sparked new challenges for researchers and conservationists
BY Leigh Cooper and Danae Lenz, University Communications
Photo provided by Joyce Poole
April 1, 2025
Meet Ryan Long, an associate professor of wildlife sciences in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences at University of Idaho. In Disney’s “The Lion King,” all the regional animals show up to honor Simba’s birth. That’s obviously fictitious, but lots of large animals do live alongside each other in Africa. Long is working to understand how that works and how those animals interact with humans.
Email us at vandaltheory@uidaho.edu.
What is your favorite African animal?
Long shares insights from his research on African wildlife in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, a region rich in biodiversity and shaped by human history.
The conversation explores how large herbivores, including spiral-horned antelopes like bushbuck and kudu, coexist by partitioning food and habitat based on body size. Long also discusses the lasting effects of Mozambique’s civil war, which devastated wildlife populations and eliminated most predators, leading to surprising behavioral shifts among species.
One of the most striking discoveries is the rise of tuskless female elephants — a rare trait that became more common due to intensive poaching. Long explains how this rapid evolutionary shift, driven by X-linked genes, offers a real-time example of human impact on animal adaptation. The episode also highlights innovative conservation strategies, such as using beehive fences to reduce human-elephant conflicts while benefiting local communities.
This episode reveals the delicate balance of nature and the far-reaching consequences of human activity on wildlife.
Time stamps
(0:00) Introduction
(1:01) What is your favorite African animal?
(1:52) Meet Ryan Long
(2:53) Why large mammals?
(3:41) Why Africa?
(4:24) Gorongosa National Park history
(6:24) Spiral-horned antelope
(14:55) Tuskless elephants
(20:55) Crop-raiding elephants
(26:51) Curiosity and observation
Music
“Young Republicans” by Steve Combs via freemusicarchive.org, not modified.
“Find The Good” by Zach Sundwall via Amphibious Zoo Music.