The impact of tree modification by African elephant (Loxodonta africana) on herpetofaunal species richness in northern Tanzania Nabil A. Nasseri, Lance D. McBrayer and Bruce A. Schulte*   Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460, U.S.A. Abstract In Africa, no other nonhuman animal fulfils the role of ecosystem engineers to the extent of the elephant. How- ever, little is known about the relationship between ele- phant modified habitats and species composition of other animals. Our objective was to sample the herpetofauna within an Acacia habitat that varied in the degree of ele- phant impact. If elephant foraging was only modifying but not degrading or enriching the habitat, then herpetofauna species abundance and richness were predicted to be similar in elephant damaged and elephant excluded areas. We conducted this study at Endarakwai Ranch in north- eastern Tanzania for 6 months in 2007 and 2008. We sampled herpetofaunal species richness and abundance within high, medium and low elephant damaged areas and in a plot that excluded elephants. Areas of heavy damage yielded higher species richness than the exclusion plot. Species diversity did not differ between the damaged areas and the exclusion plot. Frogs were more abundant in areas of high damage; in contrast, toads were found the least in high damage areas. The results support the notion that free ranging elephants influence herpetofaunal species distribution by creating habitat complexity through mod- ifying the woodland area. Key words: amphibians, habitat modification, reptiles, savannah Re ´sume ´ En Afrique, a ` part l’homme, aucun animal ne joue le ro ˆle d’inge ´nieur de l’e ´cosyste `me autant que l’e ´le ´phant. Cepen- dant, l’on sait peu de chose de la relation entre les habitats modifie ´s par l’e ´le ´phant et la composition des autres espe `ces animales. Notre objectif e ´tait d’e ´chantillonner l’herpe ´tofa- une d’un habitat a ` acacias ou ` le degre ´ d’impact des e ´le ´- phants e ´tait variable. Si l’e ´le ´phant, en se nourrissant, modifiait seulement l’habitat, sans le de ´grader ni l’enrichir, il e ´tait pre ´vu que l’abondance et la richesse des espe `ces de l’herpe ´tofaune soient similaires a ` celles des zones endo- mmage ´es ou de ´serte ´es par les e ´le ´phants. Nous avons re ´alise ´ cette e ´tude a ` l’Endarakwai Ranch, dans le nord-est de la Tanzanie, pendant six mois, en 2006 et 2007. Nous avons e ´chantillonne ´ la richesse et l’abondance, des espe `ces de l’herpe ´tofaune dans des zones fortement, moyennement et peu endommage ´es par les e ´le ´phants et dans une parcelle d’ou ` ils e ´taient exclus. Les zones fortement endommage ´es contenaient une plus grande richesse en espe `ces que la parcelle sans e ´le ´phant. La diversite ´ des espe `ces ne variait pas entre les zones endommage ´es et la parcelle d’exclusion. Les grenouilles e ´taient plus abondantes dans les zones tre `s abı ˆme ´es alors que les crapauds e ´taient la ` le moins nomb- reux. Les re ´sultats confortent l’ide ´e que les e ´le ´phants en liberte ´ influencent la distribution des espe `ces de l’herpe ´- tofaune parce qu’ils cre ´ent une diversite ´ d’habitats en modifiant les zones boise ´es. Introduction African elephants (Loxodonta africana Blumenbach) are ecosystem engineers in that they create and maintain ecosystems through physically changing the habitat (Jones, Lawton & Shachak, 1997). Elephants remove dominant hardy vegetation, which is replaced by quick growing vegetation thereby transforming dense woodlands into open grasslands (Laws, 1970; Shannon et al., 2006). Elephants browse on woody trees, such as acacia (Acacia *Correspondence: E-mail: bruce.schulte@wku.edu   Current address: Department of Biology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, U.S.A. Ó 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Afr. J. Ecol. 1