Browsing by Author "Chellam, Ravi"

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A Preliminary Study on the Ecology of the Leopard, Panthera pardus fiisca in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Maharashtra
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun., 1998) Edgaonkar, Advait; Chellam, Ravi
A preliminary study of the ecology of the leopard, Panthera pardus fusca, was done at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Maharashtra. The diet of the leopard was determined by analysing leopard scats. The major prey of the leopards was found to be domestic dogs, domestic buffalos and rodents. Primates, including rhesus macaques, bonnet macaques and common langurs and cervids, comprising chital, sambar and barking deer were also preyed on. Sections of 8 dirt roads, termed as trails T1 to T8, were monitored for intensity of leopard use. An index of prey abundance, human disturbance, stalking cover and density of trees along the trails was calculated. Intensity of use of trails by leopards was not related to the measured habitat parameters of the trails. Instances of leopard-human conflict was analysed using secondary records of the Maharashtra State Forest Department from 1986 to 1996. It was found that most instances of conflict occurred in summer and monsoon seasons. Seventy eight per cent of the deaths were of children. Awareness about leopards and attitudes towards them were quantified using a questionnaire. Tribals showed a more positive attitude score than non tribals. No such difference was seen far awareness. There were no differences in awareness and attitude among literate and illiterate people. A positive correlation between awareness scores and attitude scores was found. Suggestions for the management of leopards in SGNP include the experimental augmentation of the prey base with wild caught ungulates, monitoring for domestic dog transmitted disease, avoiding reintroduction of leopards trapped on the periphery and outside the Park boundaries into the Park and monitoring far inbreeding depression by comparing the percentage of abnormal sperm in samples from male leopards in SGNP with those from a larger population of free ranging leopards elsewhere in the country.
Ecology of the Asiatic Lion Panthera leo persica.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1993) Chellam, Ravi; Johnsingh, A.J.T.
The major objectives of my study were to assess the predation ecology, habitat use and the ranging patterns of the lions in the Gir forest. The ultimate and long term goal of this research effort was to examine the feasibility of a translocation effort in an attempt to establish a free ranging population of lions away from the Gir forest. The ecological data generated a free ranging population of lions away from the Gir forest. The ecological data generated would enable the assessment of prospective translocation sites and insights gained about lion behavoiur. This study was designed to have an extensive scope to generate base line data for planning and management of gir forest and the lions.
Ecology of the leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) in Satpura National Park and Bori Wildlife Sanctuary
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2007) Edgaonkar, Advait; Chellam, Ravi; Qureshi, Q.
The leopard study was undertaken in Satpura Tiger Reserve to study ecology of species in relatively conflict free area. Even basic information on leopard is poor, except for food habits. Leopards have been in the news in popular media in India largely because of instances of human conflict that have occurred in many places. . There is a perception that attacks on humans have increased in the last few years. It is speculated that the probable causes have been decrease in habitat, decline in leopard prey populations or increase in leopard densities close to human populations. Historical data on leopard or prey abundances in any of the conflict areas are lacking, and therefore the reasons given remain speculative. Management of the conflict would be easier if the reasons were reliably known. The study was conducted from 2001 to 2OO7.The objective of this study were a) habitat use and preference, b) prey preference and food habits, c) validate methods for leopard population estimation and d) territoriality and ranging pattern. We achieved all the objectives except ranging pattern due to problems in radio collaring permissions. By the time we got permission it got too late to capture leopards and meaningfully execute this objective and was thus dropped. The vegetation map of the study area was prepared based on remotely sensed data. Thirteen vegetation and landuse classes were identified. The spatial layer for habitat quality, climate and topographic feature were used for occupancy mapping. The prey occupancy maps with topographic data was in turn used to model predator occupancy. Most of the species were 80% correctly classified. The presence only modeling was used to estimate the area occupied by leopard in the 13 districts of south-central Madhya Pradesh. 'Optimal* habitat was 5.2% of the study area, ranging from 0.5 to 8 percent of each district. As an absolute measure it can be said that approximately 11500 sq km of habitat is likely to support leopard populations. The districts with the most optimal habitat are Betul, Hoshangabad and Chhindwara. Leopard as most diverse diet, the frequency of occurrence of prey was ordered as sambar>chital>hare>langur>birds>rodents>porcupine>wild pig>cattle. The diets of the tiger, leopard and dhole overlap to a great extent. The tiger diet overlaps more with that of the leopard than the dhole because of shared inclusion of wild pig, cattle, rodents and birds in their diet. The dhole-leopard overlap is more than the dhole-tiger overlap because the former species-pair hunt in open areas also and both thus take a significant amount of chital, unlike the tiger. Chital comprises about 20 % of leopard's biomass intake. Along with chital, sambar is a preferred prey for the dhole. Tigers seem to prefer large prey species that are more easily available, the mean size of prey being 115 kg. The leopard and dhole tend to take medium sized prey. The leopard being a solitary animal takes a mean prey size of 27 kg, while the pack living dhole takes larger prey of more than 25 kg. The leopard also has the largest range of prey size, taking small prey like hare, birds, rodents and porcupines that dhole did not kill in this study. There has recently been increased attention to the need for reliable estimates of carnivore density in India, but most of the work has been done on tigers scanty information is available for leopards. Camera trapping has been used in conjunction iii with the mark-recapture technique to estimate the densities of species in which individuals can be uniquely identified based on the coat patterns or other external marks. Large felid populations are difficult to estimate because the species are generally low in abundance, nocturnal or crepuscular and have large home ranges. The mean of the four estimates of density in Satpura Tiger Reserve is 8.87 (S.E. 0.9) per 100 sq km. It is recommended that an index of density calculated using the area of the minimum convex polygon (MCP) be used to compare different sites, and half MMDM used to estimate absolute density until further data are available on movement patterns of leopards. The sex ratios are female biased in all areas except Kamti. The average ratio is 1.68 (S.E. 0.38) females per male. For 4 estimates the capture success for males is higher than for females, and in one estimate they are the same. .The larger spatial area model had a higher predictive accuracy than the smaller scale one as quantified by the higher continuous Boyce Index. This is possibly because the Satpura Tiger Reserve has fewer disturbances and is a less heterogeneous area given its smaller size. Given the high density of leopards in the area and requiring large tracts of contiguous habitat they probably move through and live in habitats that are not highly preferred, but are still inhabitable. Very few areas in the Reserve are likely to be completely unsuitable for leopards. Proportion of dhole tracks found per sampling occasion per section declined from 24 percent to 7 percent over the three years. The decline was continuous for the first two years, before recovering in the last year. Mean proportion of leopard tracks were less variable between years, except for second year summer, where they declined drastically. C-scores were higher than expected only in winter for the four large carnivores, which suggests that competitive structuring and subtle patterns of avoidance, if present, are more likely to break down in summer. In summer habitat selection for all carnivores is likely to be more influenced by the presence of water and shade than by the presence of competitors. The understanding how these carnivore species coexist could be important in managing large carnivores in areas where more than one species is found in sympatry. Interspecific competition is a major process in the structuring of many communities and seems that resource partitioning along a combination of temporal, spatial and dietary axes has structured the large carnivore community.
Environmental Influences on Space Utilisation and the Activity Budget of Captive Leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) in Five Zoos in Southern India
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1999) Mallapur, Avanti; Chellam, Ravi; Qureshi, Qamar
A behavioural study was conducted on leopards in five zoos situated in Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Mysore and Bangalore between November 1998 and March 1999. Twenty six leopards were studied in five zoos of which sixteen were singly housed and ten were housed in groups. There were 16 males and 10 females. Only three of the 26 animals were captive born, 10 were captive reared and 13 were wild caught. Fourteen singly housed leopards were studied in on-exhibit and off exhibit enclosures on days with visitor presence and also on zoo holidays, two singly housed leopards were studied in the off-exhibit enclosures only. The group of ten at Bannerghatta Zoological Gardens, Bangalore was studied only in the on exhibit enclosure. Scan sampling method was used to record the behavioural patterns in leopards. The ethogram, which consists of all behaviour observed in five zoos lists 12 behavioural states and 29 behavioural events. The leopard enclosures were divided into imaginary blocks and the utilisation of these grids by the leopard was recorded alongwith behaviour at five-minute intervals. . Each leopard was studied for two days on-exhibit. two days off-exhibit and one zoo holiday. The leopard at Childrens' Park. Guindy was also studied for two excess visitor days during the Pongal festival. Information on each leopard was obtained from zoo records. No significant difference in behaviour was observed between males and females. and wild caught and captive-reared individuals. The behavioural repertoire of female leopards was significantly associated with their period of anoestrus. Stereotypic pacing was found to increase with enclosure size. Leopards housed in larger enclosures exhibited higher levels of activity and stereotypy behaviour. Smaller enclosures housed leopards that rested for longer proportions of time. Activity and resting behaviour peaks in the daily activity budget of the leopards were due to their crepuscular nature. The peaks in stereotypic behaviour in the daily activity budget were influenced by zookeepers' presence. Food-anticipatory behaviour was observed in all leopards before and during feed time. Individuals that were studied on-exhibit and off-exhibit exhibited higher levels of stereotypic behaviour off-exhibit and higher levels of activity behaviour on-exhibit. The presence of visitors also influences the behaviour repertoire of captive leopards. All singly housed leopards studied on days with visitor presence and zoo holidays exhibited higher levels of activity on zoo holidays and higher levels of resting behaviour on days with the presence of visitors. Six individuals were studied singly and then as pairs. The proportion of activity and resting behaviour exhibited when they were housed in pairs was higher and stereotypic behaviour, though not statistically significant, was lower than when they were singly housed. The utilisation of space differed between singly and group-housed leopards. Singly housed individuals utilised the "edge" and "back" zones of their enclosures more and the sructurally "enrich" zone less than group-housed leopards. Most of the leopards utilised the "edges" of their enclosure for stereotyping. the "back" zone for resting and the "rest" of the enclosure for activity behaviour. The structural features found within the enclosures that housed leopards were of two categories; sleeping platforms. trees and sheds that stimulated resting behaviour and logs. snags and tree trunks that stimulated activity behaviour. In enclosures that were structurally enriched with sleeping platforms, sheds or trees, leopards utilised the "enrich" zone of the enclosure for resting instead of the "back" zone. Enclosures having logs and snags. the "enrich" zones is utilised to exhibit activity behaviour. The utilisation of the structurally enriched zones of the enclosures was positively correlated with enclosure complexity. Leopards in structurally enriched enclosures exhibited higher levels of activity and lower levels of resting than the barren enclosures The factors that were found to influence the behavioural repertoire of captive leopards have been taken into consideration while recommending environmental enrichment techniques for the renovations of old enclosures and the construction of new ones.
Floristic Composition and Patterns of Regeneration of Rainforest Trees in the Fragmented Forests of the Anamalai Hills, Southern Western Ghats
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2003) Balasubramaniam, Priya; Qureshi, Qamar; Chellam, Ravi
The word diverse is almost a synonym for tropical rainforests. In no other habitat are found such an enormous number of life forms. These highly diverse systems are now facing severe threats as a result of habitat fragmentation. The aim of this study was to study the floristic composition and patterns of regeneration in the fragmented forests of the Anamalai hills, southern Western Ghats.Six fragments were chosen which varied in size and disturbance levels. They were- Iyerpadi (>2600ha), Andiparai (>185ha), Puduthotam (92ha), Pannimedu (66ha), Varattuparai 1c (11ha) and Varattuparai 4 (4ha). Quadrats of · 3 sizes were used to sample for different variables. 20 x 20m quadrats were used to enumerate tree sp, 5 x 5m quadrats were used to enumerate sapling sp and 1 x 1 m quadrats were used to count the numbers of seedlings. Height (m), GBH (cm), lopping I cutting signs, altitude, canopy cover, presence of weedy shrubs and ground cover of weedy herbs were the other variables measured. A total of 112 quadrats were laid, 25 in the first 4 fragments, 9 and 3 in the last two respectively. The findings revealed that tree and sapling generic richness showed a negative relationship with disturbance and time since isolation. Their correlations with area though positive were weak. Fragments were subjected to varied nature and levels of disturbance. Fragment characteristics such as area, time since isolation did influence the patterns of tree and sapling composition though weakly. There is an extremely weak correspondence between the tree and sapling composition of each fragment. There was a high number ' of non rainforest species in fragments which were relatively more disturbed. Relatively undisturbed fragments were more rich in rainforest trees · and saplings. Fragments showing higher levels of canopy openness were relatively more disturbed than others. Disturbed fragments also showed higher levels of weed invasion. Iyerpadi showed the highest generic richness in trees and saplings. Varattuparai 4 showed the least richness in both trees and sapling. Human disturbance due to its chronic. nature was the principal predictor of both tree and sapling composition.
Fruit Removal, Seed Dispersal and Demography of Emblica officinalis at Rajaji National Park, Uttaranchal
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001) Prasad, Soumya; Chellam, Ravi; Krishnamurthy, Jagdish
Plant-frugivore interactions determine the structure and composition of plant and frugivore communities and consequently the understanding of these interactions may help in defining the management protocol for the conservation of these systems (Howe 1993). E.officinalis fruit are an important non-timber forest produce from Indian deciduous forests. In this study I have looked at fruit removal and seed dispersal patterns of E. officinalis in the context of its use by humans. Fruit removal patterns were followed for 19 E. officinalis trees with a range of fruit crops (from 73 ± 59 X 103 fruit to less than 100 fruit) at Dhaulkand, Rajaji NP. 11 of these trees were monitored to ensure that there was no human removal of the fruit. For each tree, all fruit on the ground in the fruit fall area and all fruit on 5 -7 marked branches were counted thrice every ten days in 12-hour intervals, till less than 5% of the initial number of fruits remained on the .marked branches, to arrive at nocturnal and diurnal removal patterns for fruit. Factors affecting fruit persistence (number of days fruit persisted. on the marked branches) were extraction of fruit by people and fruit crop size. In the fruit-fall area, factors affecting nocturnal and diurnal fruit removal rates were clustering of fruiting trees and human induced factors. A range of direct and indirect methods - tree watches, track plots and camera trapping were used to determine the identity of the fruit removers and to observe the mode of fruit handling by these removers. Langur (Semnopithecus entellus), ungulates such as chital (Axis axis) and barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac) were observed feeding on E. officinalis fruit. There was also evidence that the gerbil, Tatera indica, scatter hoards the fruit. Retention In ungulate rumens reduced germination success of E. officinalis seeds. Demography of E. officinalis and regeneration status of woody plant species at Rajaji was assessed along 6 one Ian transects' across a gradient of human use intensity, 3 each in hill and plain mixed forests. The E. officinalis population at Rajaji was found to have very few trees below 30 cm GBH. E. officinalis seedlings were found only in areas almost completely free from human use. Regeneration for tree species at Rajaji was dominated by species that are not lopped for fodder.
Impacts of Habitat Conversion on the Leaf Litter Anuran Community of Varagaliar, Western Ghats
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1995) Saravanakumar, S.U.; Chellam, Ravi
Ranging, Activity Patterns and Habitat Use of Blackbuck and Nilgai in Velavadar National Park, Gujarat, India
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001) Sahabandhu, H. Dhanushki R.; Chellam, Ravi; Mathur, V.B.
I studied the activity patterns, ranging and habitat use of blackbuck (Antelope cervicapra rajputanae) and nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) in Velavadar National Park from November 2000 to April 2001. Scan sampling was used to record blackbuck and nilgai activity patterns. Herds were also followed from sunrise to sunset to study the diurnal movements. Satellite imagery was used for vegetation mapping. Habitat availability and usage of both species were examined by plotting the grazing circuit on the satellite imagery. Activity patterns were found to differ amongst the various social groups, habitats and seasons. Temporal variations in foraging time and resting time were found in all the groups studied. Blackbuck had three foraging peaks and two resting peaks as compared to nilgai, which had two, and one peaks respectively. Diurnal distances were not found to differ in any of the different blackbuck or nilgai groups or between the two species. Differences between blackbuck herds in different seasons and habitats were attributed to the nutritional levels and the spatial dispersion of vegetation. Foraging behaviour decreased in summer supporting results of previous studies that blackbuck reduced foraging due to lower nutrition levels. Male blackbuck was found to forage 67% compared to 58% by females. This difference was attributed to larger body size in males, and the upcoming rutting/lekking season. No difference was found between nilgai males and females, except usage by females was slightly more in high nutritional areas. Female nilgai were found to become more selective in summer, by increasing their foraging time from 43% to 55%. But no difference in habitat usage was found, possibly due to sustenance from Prosopis juliflora pods. Blackbuck were found to spend more time foraging (53%) compared to nilgai (43%). This was due to blackbuck being more selective in the prevailing drought conditions, while nilgai were possibly supplementing their diet with P Juliflora pods. Differences between the two species in temporal allocation of foraging time was found which was ascribed to difference in gut capacity. No seasonal differences were found between the two species, except that nilgai were found to be using high nutrition areas. Nilgai were found to be more selective nutritionally than blackbuck, possibly due to nilgai being an intermediate feeder compared to blackbuck, which are coarse bulk feeders.
Reproductive strategy and behaviour of male Asiatic Lions.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2008) Meena, V.; Jhala, Y.V.; Chellam, Ravi
The field study was carried out from April 2002 to February 2007 and the intensive study area covered 1075 km2 area of the Gir PA including Sanctuary West and National Park. i) Demographic changes in the Gir lion population were monitored using individual identification profiles for a period of four years. Lion population was estimated using mark-recapture models. Movement patterns, spacing mechanisms and land tenure system of four females (one radio-collared female), five adult males (two radio-collared males) and one subadult male (radio-collared) were obtained. Of these, seven individuals were monitored from 2002–2007. Lion diet was assessed both by intensive search across the study area and record of lion kills as well as analysis of scat. A questionnaire survey was conducted in twenty nesses that included seven nesses in central Gir and thirteen nesses in Gir-west to assess the livestock holding and causes of livestock mortality. Inter-kill intervals were obtained from direct observation of radio-collared lions.
Reptilian species distribution in response to habitat fragmentation and microhabitats in the rainforests of southern Western Ghats, India.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001) Ishwar, N.M.; Chellam, Ravi
Habitat fragmentation has long been recognized as a threat to biological diversity and a major cause in the sudden increase in the extinction rates of species. Demographic and environmental stochasticity, habitat degeneration, the decrease in genetic variability and the influx of secondary forest species all lead to the extinction of forest species in the forest fragments. The forests in the various hill ranges in the Western Ghats are under anthropogenic pressure, mainly due to commercial plantations like tea, coffee, cardamom and spices and timber. The construction of dams for irrigation and hydroelectric power projects and roads and rapid urbanization are other ways by which the once contiguous middle elevation rainforests of the Western Ghats have been dismembered into scattered fragments. The rainforests of the Western Ghats is one of the richest biogeograpic zones in the country with more than 50% of the reptiles reported from the area being endemic to these forests. The most serious problem that is faced by the wildlife managers in the Western Ghats is that the remaining forests, especially the rainforests, occur in a highly fragmented state. The effect of rainforest fragmentation has taken its toll on the overall biological diversity with declines in reptile species contributing to this loss. Addressing this conservation problem becomes difficult in any forum, as studies on reptiles are few and poorly represented in literature. In this background, the objectives of the present study broadly defined here were to understand 1) the factors that govern the distribution of reptiles in the rainforests. The factors include both macro and microhabitat variables that the reptiles are know to respond to; and 2) to see if the process of rainforest fragmentation has affected the reptilian distribution and community structure, and to understand the direction of this impact. The study was divided in to two phases, the first phase was devoted to understanding the factors that were likely to influence the distribution of rainforest reptiles, while the second phase looked into the effects of rainforest fragmentation on reptiles. A combination of sampling techniques that included the adaptive cluster sampling (for leaf litter reptiles), the forest transects (for arboreal reptiles), stream surveys (for nocturnal stream dwelling reptiles) and opportunistic sampling was used to sample rainforest reptiles. Three sites in the contiguous rainforests of Kalakad-Mundanthurai . Tiger Reserve (KMTR), that broadly represented the altitude range and the different drainages, formed the site for the first phase of the fieldwork. The fourteen rainforest fragments in the Anamalai Hills were the study sites for the second phase of fieldwork where the effects of rainforest fragmentation were enumerated explore in detail the two major points expressed above, and detailed assessment of what is needed to promote reptile conservation is provided at the end.
Spatial patterns of species richness and distribution in breeding land birds of the Central Indian Highlands.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2006) Jaypal, R.; Qureshi, Qamar; Chellam, Ravi
Variations in number and distribution of species in space constitute one of the fundamental themes in ecological research. It is being increasingly recognized that studies on species diversity at regional scale are essential to understand the mechanisms of maintenance of biological diversity. Emergence of macroecology, where large-scale ecological phenomena are examined to test biogeographical hypotheses, has considerably widened the scope of these approaches to include application of empirical patterns in finding solutions to conservation issues. This study, adopting this acroecological framework, investigates the spatial patterns in species richness and distribution of breeding land birds in central India. 2. The study was conducted across the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges, collectively known as Central Indian Highlands, in Madhya Pradesh, India between March, 2002 and September, 2005. Bird species composition is found to be primarily determined by vegetation structure at regional level and by floristic composition at local scale. This finding is consistent with earlier observations that birds respond, in their species composition, to vegetation structure across habitats and to vegetation composition within habitats. The species-area relationship in central Indian birds is best described by power function curve with a slope of 0.12. The acutely low slope points to the extremely sparse nature of spatial gradient in bird species diversity of Central Indian Highlands. The findings of the study clearly illustrate the bias in PA network that a single-species approach can potentially bring about. The recent rediscovery of the critically endangered Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti), after a gap of 113 years, from these low-rainfall dry deciduous forests highlights the importance of extending adequate protection to all major biomes and the need for multi-species approach in design and maintenance of an efficient PA network.
SURVEY OF POTENTIAL SITES FOR THE RE-INTRODUCTION OF THE ASIATIC LION
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1993) Johnsingh, A.J.T; Chellam, Ravi; Joshua, Justus; Arthreya, Vidya; William, A. Christy
Viperine Encounters
(Wildlife Institute of India, 1988) Chellam, Ravi
Wildlife Conservation, Research and Management
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2005) Jhala. Y.V.; Chellam, Ravi; Qureshi, Q.