Long‐term high densities of African elephants clear the understorey and promote a new stable savanna woodland community

International audienceQuestions: Species defined as ecosystem engineers (e.g. elephant) are able to strongly shape their habitat. In African savannas, elephants have often been shown to reduce woody-plant abundance and diversity. However, recent studies highlight more complex elephant-induced effects on vegetation. Here, we assessed if long-term high elephant densities (>2 km−2) in a large open landscape resulted in the depletion of savanna woodland woody communities or if it led to a new alternative equilibrium. Location: Woodland savanna of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Elephant densities at the study site have remained high for the past two decades (>2 km−²). Methods: We measured long-term (>15 years) elephant utilisation of woody-plant communities and their effects on vegetation structure, species composition and functional traits (e.g. N leaf concentration, specific leaf area) in 12 vegetation plots. Results: We observed opportunistic foraging behaviour by elephants with only a slight temporal shift in species composition, mainly explained by changes in rare species. Further, we did not observe any modification in mean functional trait values, overall height, and stem diameters of the woody-plant communities. However, we found differential changes in woody-plant abundance according to the height layer (decrease in the number of tall plants [>200 cm] and increase in the number of short plants [