African animals prefer to graze in spots once inhabited by Iron Age humans

Survey a savanna bush in southern Africa, where a sea of tall grasses sways in the wind, dotted with herds of antelope, shrubs, and acacia trees, and you might think you were in a pristine landscape untouched by humans. But the continent’s grazing animals know better. Impala and greater kudu, African antelope species, prefer to forage on land once covered by 1800-year-old Iron Age homes and cattle enclosures, because more kinds of nutrient-rich grasses grow there today, a team of researchers based in Zimbabwe and Botswana reports this month in the Journal of Arid Environments . The work adds to scientists’ understanding of how ancient societies around the world left lasting effects on the landscape—a potentially global phenomenon. The research is “exquisitely done,” says historical ecologist Chelsey Geralda Armstrong of Simon Fraser University, who was not involved with the study. “Papers like this are increasingly contributing to a narrative shift about how humans aren’t always bad for the environment.” Precolonial nomadic pastoralists in southern and eastern Africa relied on cattle for transport, dairy, and meat. During the day, cattle grazed on the savanna rangelands. At night, the herders rounded up their animals into kraals , an Afrikaans word referring to fenced enclosures that kept both people and animals safe from predators. Cattle dung might build up for years in a kraal before pastoralists mo...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research