Zoogeomorphological Influences on Wildlife Conservation and Management: A Systematic Review and Case Study of Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Zoogeomorphology, which is the mutual effect of biological activity and landforms, provides a significant yet underused framework for evidence-based wildlife conservation and management. This paper seeks to review international literature on the importance of zoogeomorphological processes toward biodiversity conservation in savanna ecosystems with a focused case study at Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR), Kenya. The Maasai Mara happens to be one among many other species-rich savanna landscapes in the world under increasing pressures from climate variability, land-use change, and human activities that create challenges for effective conservation planning. A structured search protocol was used to carry out this review which revealed 86 studies as relevant documentation on how fauna create landforms through processes like trampling, grazing, digging, burrowing, dunging, and wallowing among others influencing soils and hydrology vegetation structure habitat availability as well as species interactions. Evidence has been presented here regarding large mammals playing the role of ecosystem engineers creating heterogeneity in habitats resource distribution as well as population dynamics over different scales. The case study from Maasai Mara brings out these interactions practically by showing how activities of wildlife and livestock around water points floodplains migration corridors significantly demarcate landscape structure ecological viability. Results indicated extensive documentation on zoogeomorphological effects yet confirmed that such events were almost entirely absent from formal integration into conservation planning monitoring frameworks or any regulatory instruments. The study also suggested that management strategies based on insights from zoogeomorphology could enhance ecosystem resilience improve habitat connectivity and foster adaptive conservation under new environmental conditions. It highlighted the imperative need for incorporating landform–biota interactions into wildlife management practices to achieve greater long-term sustainability of savanna protected areas within Kenya and beyond.