ALLOMETRY IN SYMPATRIC GRAZERS: DOES IT INFLUENCE THEIR ABUNDANCE, DISTRIBUTION AND RESOURCE SELECTION AND USE PATTERNS IN THE MOLE NATIONAL PARK?

Large grazers attract many tourists to the Mole National Park (MNP). Therefore, research is needed to boost their conservation. This study is the first to identify and explore the effect of allometry on distribution, abundance and resource selection and use patterns of large grazers in MNP. I surveyed 36 transects over a period of one year by counting the grazers during their feeding times. I used quadrats to measure variables representing forage quality and quantity. There is a steep gradient of body mass variation in the large grazers of MNP but while body size differences did not account for the large grazers resource selection and use in the MNP, there was interspecific variation in abundance with body size. The megagrazers and intermediate body-sized grazers were less abundant than their relatively small-bodied counterparts and preferred forage with high quantity to forage with high quality unlike grazers with relatively small body sizes, which preferred forage with high quality to forage with high quantity in accordance with the allometric feeding hypothesis. Therefore, availability of forage in high quality and quantity all seasons are necessary for the grazers conservation.