M Sc Dissertation(WII)
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Item Assessing the dog-wildlife interface in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2024) Kuruppath, Sanjana Vadakke; Ramesh, K.; Kher, V.Dogs are generally considered to be detrimental to wildlife, primarily as hyper-abundant predators and vectors of disease. However, studies on the impact of dogs are often a by-product of research on a wild species or anecdotal accounts of predation. Among studies where the focus is on dogs, quantified reports of impacts are rare compared to studies based on social surveys; very few such studies have been produced from India. This study aims to produce such a report from Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiri landscape. The objectives of this study were to quantify the dog population and its demographic parameters, assess spatio-temporal overlap with wildlife, and carry out a survey to understand human attitudes towards dog management. Population and human attitude assessment are critical to monitoring long-term dog presence in the region as well as to successfully implement management strategies. To accomplish this, I carried out photographic sight-resight surveys, a questionnaire survey, and boundary camera trapping in five villages in MTR, and also utilized secondary camera trap forest data. My results indicate that: 1. The dog population is approximately 1300 across all villages, with a distinct population towards the village center and another roaming population of stray/farm dogs at the wildlife interface. If current levels of sterilization are maintained, the population will drop to around 600 within 20 years. Heterogeneity capture-recapture models in Program MARK provide fairly reliable estimates that improve with higher recapture rates. 2. Spatio-temporal overlap of wildlife with dogs is relatively high in forest areas, indicating little segregation and therefore little negative impact on wildlife behavior. In village areas, temporal segregation was present while spatial segregation was not, indicating that further fine-scale research at the boundaries is required. Chital is the prey species at highest risk of predation, while dholes show moderate overlap with dogs at village boundaries. Levels of overlap are specific to villages as well as dog pack activity patterns and local context should be considered at the village scale while planning management strategies. 3. Local residents have strong ties to their dogs, which primarily protect their owners and assets such as livestock, and are broadly in favor of ABC programmes. Outreach and education to improve awareness and goodwill will be crucial to successfully managing the dog population in the futureItem Assessing the distribution and density of the Fishing Cat in Bhitarkanika mangroves of eastern India by(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2024) Ashik, C.S.; Mukherjee, Shomita; Gopi, G.V.; Pandav, BivashIdentifying the areas of occurrence, population, and the factors affecting the species distribution is critical in conservation and management. The Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus), a smaller feline native to South and Southeast Asia, is globally vulnerable and adapted to wetland habitats, with a diet primarily consisting of fish. This makes Bhitarkanika, a mangrove ecosystem, an ideal habitat for the Fishing Cat. This study was conducted to estimate the species density, determine the factors affecting its distribution, and assess the effect of lunar illumination and tidal fluctuation on Fishing Cat activity. Despite known occurrences of Fishing Cats in this area, there has been no proper assessment of their population or other ecological studies. Camera traps were deployed in 109 grids, each covering 1km², across a total of 145 km², for 2878 trap nights. Camera trap locations are unbaited, with two cameras used to capture both flanks. Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) was used to estimate the density, resulting in 0.6 ± 0.1 individuals per km². The abundance was also calculated, with an estimate of 99 ± 16 individuals. These density estimates from this study are close to recent high-density estimates for the species. The canopy cover, the width of the creek, canopy cover and the distance to the aquaculture farms significantly influenced the Fishing Cat habitat use, indicating the need for the conservation of natural mangrove habitats and regulation of aquafarms present near the forest. In contrast, the presence of Saltwater Crocodile showed a negative effect on the distribution of Fishing Cats. The Fishing Cats were more active during the brighter nights of the moon phase (μ= 266.783, r= 0.051, p< 0.01) due to better visual detection. The activity was influenced both by the tidal fluctuations in terms of food resources from waterbodies and it is further enhanced by the lunar illumination during the night. Pairwise non-parametric tests showed that the probability distributions of Fishing Cat activity under lunar illumination and tide fluctuation (D= 0.125, p-value = 0.9885 and D= 0.125, p-value= 0.9899) were similar, indicating minimal differences between each probability distribution. This study underscores the importance of protecting the mangrove habitat and controlling aquaculture expansion to ensure Fishing Cat survival in the Bhitarkanika National Park.Item Abundance and social organization of male Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Rajaji Tiger Reserve(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2024) Madhusudanan, Abhimanyu; Pandav, Bivash; Lakshminarayan, N.; Mondol, Samrat1. Asian Elephants are complex, social, and polygynous mammals living in fission-fusion societies. Male elephants are known to alternate between leading solitary lives, in all-male groups or associating with mixed-sex herds. All-male groups allow younger males to learn from older males, test strengths and spar with their peers. While much work has been done on female Asian elephant societies, studies focused on male association patterns are limited, but gaining importance in the light of human-elephant conflicts. In this study, I estimated the abundance of adult male elephants in a stretch of forest spanning over 40 km along the east bank of the river Ganga in Uttarakhand using a polygon search-based spatially explicit capture recapture (SECR) framework 2. I invested a survey effort of ~3014 km to estimate the abundance of the adult male segment of the population using a capture-recapture framework. Using a combination of morphological features, I identified 34 adult males from 124 elephant sightings. Association patterns of the male elephants, following behavioural sampling approaches were also recorded during the surveys. 3. Adult male elephant density was 0.05 (SE=0.01)/km2, and a derived abundance of 40 (SE=1.4) for the 475 km2 study area. This demonstrates that polygon search-based SECR is an effective approach in estimating elephant abundance.Item Evaluating the importance of scale in estimating tiger populations(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2007) Contractor, Deep; Jhala, Y.V.; Qureshi, QamarPopulation estimation is one of the most important aspects of ecological studies as it plays a pivotal role in establishing priorities for species specific conservation and for delineating management practices. The tiger serves as a flagship and umbrella species for conservation efforts in the Indian subcontinent but, unfortunately wild tiger populations are on a drastic decline owing to factors like poaching, habitat fragmentation and degradation. In such a scenario reliable population estimates prove to be of vital importance. Camera trapping technique has been widely used for population estimation of cryptic carnivores including tigers. An attempt was made, through this study, to arrive at population and density estimates for Corbett NP through camera trapping technique following the mark recapture framework and answering some key questions regarding the importance of sampling effort required for arriving at such reliable estimates. A total of 7865 trap nights yielded 358 captures of 103 individual tigers within an intensively sampled area of (MCP) 420.86 km2. The estimated density of tiger was 16.01 (±1.6) per 100 km2 for RPSV, a new approach to calculate effectively sampled area. These estimates coincided with the estimates using full MMDM method. Also, the conventional method of using half MMDM seems to overestimate the density. The estimated sampling effort required for arriving at accurate and precise estimates of the true population in terms of sampling occasions amounted to 35 - 40 days. Evaluation of the influence of trap density revealed that high trap density (25 traps/km2 ca.) is required to get reliable estimates of population irrespective of the underlying population/density gradient.Item Evaluating Tiger (Panthera tigris) Population Estimation Approches in a High Density Area in Kanha Tiger Reserve(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2005) Sharma, Rishi Kumar; Jhala, Y.V.Reliable estimates of status and population trends are critical for the conservation of large terrestrial carnivores as they play an important role in evaluating effectiveness of conservation efforts and also provide benchmark data for future management decisions. Camera trapping technique have been widely used for population estimation of cryptic carnivores including tigers, but the issues regarding sampling design and effort required to effectively sample an area have been paid less attention. An attempt was made to deal with these issues in the present study. The use of intensive search effort for tiger density estimation was also evaluated. Over a 30- day survey period, 33 camera trap sites were sampled in Kanha meadows of the Kanha Tiger Reserve. A total sampling effort of 330 trap nights yielded 39 photocaptures of 12 individual tigers over 10 sampling occasions that effectively covered a 111-km2 area. The model M(o) fitted the capture history data well. The estimated capture probability/sample, p-hat = 0.22, resulted in an estimated population size and standard error (N(SE TV)) of 13 (1.19), and a density (D(SE Z))) of 11.71 (1.74)7100 km2. Camera spacing was found to considerably influence the population estimation. An increase in camera spacing from 1.5 to 2.5 km resulted in a loss of 35% (n=7) of photo captures which consequently decreased the precision of the estimates, though accuracy was not affected. A reduction in the trapping effort in terms of reduced trap nights resulted in lower level of precision though the accuracy of estimates was not affected. Increase in the camera spacing from 1 to 2 km with a decrease in the number of sampling occasions (six) resulted in the loss of 42% of photo captures (n=12) and loss of 25% of individual tigers (Mz+/=9) thus underestimating the true tiger population by 16% ((N(SE N)) being 10(1.84) The data also suggests that the photo-captures are not likely to generate abundance index for species other than tigers, since the cameras are placed to maximize tiger captures in space and time. My results suggest that a thorough reconnaissance survey is of utmost importance for camera trapping studies as it can help to maximize the capture probability of tigers and circumvent the sampling problems. The different statistical estimator’s viz. capture-recapture, jackknife and bootstrap did not show significant differences in the population estimation. Bootstrap estimator performed better than jackknife in terms of greater precision. The differences between the density estimates generated by “camera trapping” (D=l 1.71/100 km2, S.E.=1.74) and “intensive search effort” (0=12.74/100 km2, S.E.=2.27) for tigers were not significantly different. Our results suggest that “intensive search effort” for tigers if used within capture-recapture framework can be used to arrive at reliable population estimationItem Aspects of Foraging, Activity, Habitat Use and Demography of Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis Linn.) in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2003) Kandel, Ram Chandra; Jhala, Y.V.The study was conducted between November 2002 to June 2003 in the Royal Chitwan National Park, in Central Terai which arbors the largest population of the Great One-honed Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis Linn) in Nepal. I studied time Activity budget, Habitat use, preference, food habits and ranging pattern of free ranging rhinos by continuously monitoring them from elephant back for 130.5 hrs (10 sessions of 7-24 hr each)Item Home Range, Ranging Patterns and Abundance Estimation of Golden Jackals in the BHAL Region of Gujarat(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001) Aiyadurai, Ambika; Jhala, Y.V.Studied Golden Jackals (Canis aureus) in the Bhal area of Gujarat using radiotelemetry. Six jackals were trapped in Velavadar.National Park during November and December 2000 using rubber-padded leg-hald traps. The average home range size of jackals was estimated to be 14. 30 ± 4.06 sq. km. The core areas of jackal home ranges were highly correlated with vegetation cover. Habitats preferred for core areas were Prosopis juliflora and grasslands. Jackals ranged an average distance of 6.8 ± 0.91 km in a night. Most movements were out of the park to surrounding villages, which were rich in food resources for jackals. I evaluated two techniques to estimate jackal abundance namely the track plot method and simulated howling responses method in six areas differing in jackal abundances in the Bhal and Kutch regions. The latter technique gave a better resolution of abundance categories within the study sites.Item Evaluation of Pugmark Census Technique(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001) Sharma, Sandeep; Jhala, Y.V.Effective conservation strategies hinge on reliable population estimation technique. The potential of pugmark as a tool for population estimation of tigers was statistically examined. Eleven variables were selected and they were found effective in discrimination between individual tigers. These variables also discriminated between male & female in a population of 10 known tigers with 100% accuracy. This sex discrimination modal was found 97.4% accurate during validation over three new known tigers. The above said variables were also robust for pooling left and right pugmark. The soil depth of range 0.5 cm to 2 cm was found to be ideal for PI P preparation, since the 11 predictor variables were examined to be insensitive towards shape and size change of pugmark due to substrate condition. Classification of 17 individual tigers was achieved with 97% accuracy using stepwise discriminant function analysis. The statistical protocol developed in this study was found to be 100% accurate in predicting the correct number of tigers and correct classification of pugmarks, during validation in a blind set simulated 'census-exercise' from a known number of tigers (some of the track sets used for this analysis were not used for developing the DFA model). Variability in pugmark tracings due to tracer's effect was found to be significant. ANOVA (p-value 0.002 with df-1, df-53) results suggest a significant difference between variables measured from tracings and those from photos. However, DFA was unable to discriminate between tracings and photographs suggesting that either could be used in the model. Seventy five percent of the "experts" (n=8) were 100% correct in deciphering individual tigers in a blind test involving 15 tiger pugmarks from 7 individual tigers. The remaining 2 experts overestimated the tiger numbers by 1. The experts had an accuracy of 92% (sd = 7.8) in correct classification of tiger pugmarks. The other groups of respondents, ecologists (n=11) and lay persons (n=15) overestimated the tiger numbers and had an accuracy rate of 670/0 (sd = 24), and 640/0 (sd = 6) respectively in classifying pugmarks correctly. This study suggests that pugmarks can be used as a tool for population estimation of tigers, if subjected to analytical protocol developed here in within the constraints outlined.