Data from: The burning question: does fire affect habitat selection and forage preference of the black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis in East African savannahs?

Endangered species conservation requires information on how management
activities influence habitat quality. The black rhinoceros (Diceros
bicornus) is critically endangered and restricted to savannas representing
~5% of its historical range. Fire is used extensively in savanna, but
little is known about how rhinos respond to burning. Our aim was to
understand rhino responses to fire by studying habitat selection and
foraging at multiple scales. We used resource selection functions and GPS
locations of 31 rhinos from 2014-2016 to study rhino habitat use in
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Rhino selectivity was quantified by
comparing forage consumption to plant species availability in randomly
sampled vegetation plots; rhino diets were subsequently verified through
DNA-metabarcoding analysis of fecal samples. Rhino habitat use was a
unimodal function of fire history, with highly occupied sites having fire
frequencies of < 0.6 fires yr-1 and maximum occupancy occurring at
a fire frequency of 0.1 fires yr-1. Foraging stations had characteristic
plant communities, with 17 species statistically associated with rhino
foraging. Rhinos were associated with, and disproportionately consumed,
woody plants, forbs and legumes all of which decreased in abundance with
increasing fire frequency. In contrast to common management practices,
multiple lines of evidence suggest that the current fire regime in
Serengeti negatively influences rhino habitat use and foraging and that
frequent fire limits rhino access to preferred forage. We conclude with a
conceptual model to guide managers and conservationists in the use of fire
under variable savanna conditions.