Vetnuus | September 2025 25 Findings for a study done in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe [20] indicated peak utilisation of waterholes by elephant at around 20:00, which matches a secondary peak we observed for the wet season. Limited surface water availability in Hwange National Park [20] could be a reason for elephants utilising waterholes less frequently and likely having a greater dependence on alternative thermoregulatory methods [17]. While elephants are generally considered to have no preference for drinking at a specific time [33], our findings suggest that probably due to their large body mass and associated water loss during hotter parts of the day, elephants tend to visit waterholes more frequently between late morning and early evening (09:00 and ~21:00). In this study, elephants exhibited a clear preference for reservoirs throughout the year. This is likely because reservoirs have high concrete sides and bottoms, are filled with borehole water, and are often out of reach of other game species that could pollute the water. Other waterhole types are more likely to be contaminated with faecal matter and associated bacteria [23]. The avoidance of surface water with high bacteria levels has been substantiated by studies showing that elephants will rather dig for water to drink than use polluted surface water [49, 50]. This preference differs from the broader findings of Du Toit [33], who indicated an overall preference for natural waterhole types like earth dams. We did, however, find that elephants at the study site used earth dams at midday and in the afternoon for bathing or lying down in water to cool down during the hot daily temperatures of the wet season [32]. Reservoirs were preferred at night and in the morning, and earth dams at midday and in the afternoon (Table 2). The behaviour of bachelor elephant groups differed from that of breeding herds, indicating potential social dynamics. Bachelor elephants preferred reservoirs in the wet season and earth dams in the dry season. Bachelor groups preferred earth dams in the wet season and concrete pans in the dry season. Breeding herds consistently preferred reservoirs throughout both seasons across all daily periods (Figs 5A and 6A). This suggests that female herd members may not tolerate bachelor groups, aligning with documented behaviour in the literature [34, 51]. Bachelor groups, composed of young males testing their strength, could pose a risk of injury to young elephants within Coefficients β Z value CI Pr(>|z|) White Rhino Afternoon Period (DailyPeriod*GroupType) 1.003 -1.977 -3.95:1.94 0.05 Dry Season:Afternoon Period (Season*DailyPeriod) 2.043 2.516 0.45:3.63 0.01 Black Rhino Unknown Adults (WaterholeType*GroupType) 1.229 3.640 0.57:1.89 < 0.00 Unknown Adults (Period*GroupType) 1.269 3.362 0.53:2.01 < 0.00 Large Waterholes (DailyPeriod*WaterholeSize) 0.700 2.040 0.03:1.37 0.04 Unknown Adults (Season*GroupType) 1.253 2.706 0.35:2.16 0.01 Elephant Medium Waterholes (WaterholeSize*GroupType) 0.401 3.046 0.14:0.66 < 0.00 Reservoir (WaterholeTyppe*GroupType) 0.706 5.042 0.43:0.98 < 0.00 Reservoir:Breeding Herd (WaterholeTyppe*GroupType) 0.676 3.379 0.28:1.07 < 0.00 Trough:Breeding Herd (WaterholeTyppe*GroupType) 0.978 3.533 0.44:1.52 < 0.00 Morning Period:Bachelor Groups (Period*GroupType) 1.028 2.859 0.32:1.73 < 0.00 Midday Period:Bachelor Groups (Period*GroupType) 1.247 4.668 0.72:1.77 < 0.00 Medium Waterholes (Period*WaterholeSize) 0.303 2.253 0.04:0.57 0.02 Midday Period:Large Waterholes (Period*WaterholeSize) 1.131 4.202 0.60:1.66 <0.00 Afternoon Period:Large Waterholes (Period*WaterholeSize) 1.090 3.947 0.55:1.63 < 0.00 Midday Period (Period*WaterholeType) 0.490 2.761 0.14:0.84 0.01 Concrete Pan (Period*WaterholeType) 0.996 5.431 0.64:1.36 < 0.00 Reservoir (Period*WaterholeType) 1.385 8.057 1.05:1.72 < 0.00 Wet Season (Season*GroupType) 0.319 2.755 0.09:0.55 0.01 Breeding Herd (Season*GroupType) 0.253 2.181 0.03:0.48 0.03 Wet Season:Medium Waterholes (Season*WateholeSize) 0.549 3.266 0.22:0.88 < 0.00 Concrete pan (Season*WaterholeType) 0.515 3.784 0.25:0.78 <0.00 Reservoir (Season*WaterholeType) 0.626 4.719 0.37:0.89 < 0.00 Wet Season:Reservoir (Season*WaterholeType) 0.408 2.279 0.06:0.76 0.02 Table 5: Results for a series of GLM’s showing the models with the best fit for White rhino, Black rhino and Elephant β = beta value, CI = Confidence Interval, Pr(>|z|) = significance Research Article
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