Buffalo close association matrices: Kruger National Park, South Africa

Many infectious pathogens are shared through social interactions, and examining host connectivity has offered valuable insights for understanding patterns of pathogen transmission across wildlife species. African buffalo are social ungulates and important reservoirs of directly-transmitted pathogens that impact numerous wildlife and livestock species.  

Here, we analyzed African buffalo social networks to quantify variation in close contacts, examined drivers of contact heterogeneity, and investigated how the observed contact patterns affect pathogen invasion likelihoods for a wild social ungulate.  

We collected continuous association data using proximity collars and sampled host traits approximately every two months during a 15-month study period in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  

Although the observed herd was well connected, with most individuals contacting each other during each bimonthly interval, our analyses revealed striking heterogeneity in close-con...,

Study site and population 

Kruger National Park (KNP) spans nearly 19,485km2 (22.5° - 25.5°S, 31.0° - 31.57°E) and hosts a diversity of wildlife, including wild African buffalo. Our study population included a wild buffalo herd, which was captured in Northern KNP during the early 2000's and relocated to a 900-hectare enclosure in the center of the park, near Satara camp (Fig. S1). The buffalo sample size varied during our study (N = 60–70) due to births and deaths. On average, 25.60 ± 0.10 % of the herd were calves, 22.95 ± 0.09 % were juveniles and 51.45 ± 0.19 % were adults. Buffalo were free to graze and breed in the enclosure, and during extreme droughts, they had access to supplemental grass hay. Water was available to buffalo at a natural pan and a manmade water point (Fig. S1). This “nearly natural” enclosure included numerous other species typical of the ecosystem (e.g., giraffe, zebra, warthogs, and small predators), while excluding megaherbivores (e.g., rhinos, elephants)..., Files can be read with any text editor that can open CSV files.Â