The effects of habitat and climate on tick abundance and diversity on a game reserve in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

ABSTRACT

The livelihoods of local farmers and game ranchers in Africa – and the communities these businesses support – are threatened by tick-borne diseases that kill and weaken livestock. Understanding the local ecology of ticks may inform cost-effective and sustainable techniques for controlling tick populations. Our objective was to describe differences in tick abundance, species richness, and community structure in three different habitats from June-July 2022 on a game reserve in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Ticks were sampled using the drag method, in 54 30 m × 5 m transects evenly distributed across bushveld, long grass, and short grass habitats. Total tick abundance and species richness were significantly greater in long grass than in bushveld and short grass. Although there were no significant differences among the habitats in Simpson’s diversity, the composition of the communities did vary significantly, with the relative abundances of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus and R. evertsi evertsi peaking in long grass, Amblyomma hebraeum peaking in bushveld, and R. decoloratus peaking in short grass. Differences in habitat suitability for ticks and habitat use by ungulate hosts may explain the significant effect of habitat on tick abundance, species richness, and community structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Ticks
• total abundance
• species richness
• Simpson’s diversity
• community structure
• South Africa

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Peter Oberem, owner of Afrivet, for connecting us with Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Center and paying for tick taxonomy training. A special thanks to the AMES foundation for allowing access to the Dabchick Reserve and Joseph Nkuna and Klaas Maluleka for assisting with tick collections. Finally, KF thanks Dr. Travis Perry for being a continuous supporter and mentor of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a Furman University Research Fellowship Grant to KF.