Theses and Dissertations

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Start date: 2020Subject: search.filters.subject.Home range

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    Assessing Habitat Use and Activity Pattern of Hoolock Gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) in the Mosaic Landscape of Garo Hills
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Passah, Betwonsaoo; Lyngdoh, Salvador; Kumara, H.N.
    Primates react to environmental disruption in a variety of ways. Their home range and activity pattern are often linked with anthropogenic disturbance of the landscape. This study focuses on Hoolock Gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) in Garo Hills, Meghalaya, which is a highly arboreal primate and the only ape in India. Hoolock gibbon’s habitat in the Garo hills is being degraded due to the increase in the conversion of forest land into plantations. As most of these forests where the gibbons are located are managed by the community, these forests face overexploitation, which threatens the endangered Hoolock Gibbons habitat. This study aims to establish a baseline Hoolock Gibbon Ecology in the community-managed forest and protected area in the mosaic landscape of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, by examining their habitat use and activity pattern. The main objective is to determine the Gibbon's habitat use within its home range and examine their activity patterns in different forest types. The study is conducted in Daribokgre CR (a continuous forest patch adjoining Nokrek National Park), Dura Kalakgre CR (a small strip of CR which is surrounded by abandoned jhum and active jhum), and an Areca nut plantation which is located in Rensengre close to Selbalgre CR. In each area, one group is chosen and tracked for 20 days. Geo-coordinates and behavioural data were collected, with vegetation sampling and disturbances within a 1 ha cell size grid, which was overlaid on the location points. QGIS was used to map habitat use based on the geospatial data, and the Generalised Linear Model (GLM) was used to check the influencing factors. The activity budget was calculated to understand the behaviour patterns. Across the three studied groups, the habitat types were different group in Daribokgre (Forest group) is dominated by forest patches, the group in Dura Kalkgre (Jhum group) was dominated by abandoned jhum, and the group in Rensengre (Plantation group) was dominated by plantation, and their home range size were 24 hectares, 30 hectares, and 23 hectares, respectively. GLM reveals a significant effect only for the group in the disturbed habitat on the intensity of use. Overall, habitat use patterns and activity patterns varied across the groups, reflecting in behavioural and habitat preference.
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    Habitat Utilisation of Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) in and Around Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Rayen, W. Michael Isaac V.; Pandav, Bivash; Das, Abhijit
    The water monitor lizard Varanus salvator is the largest of all lizards in India, and its distribution is restricted to certain pockets of the northeast, eastern coast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite being the largest lizard, only limited studies have been done on this species, especially on the movement pattern and home range. This study focuses on the space use pattern of Varanus salvator in the mangrove habitats of Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha. In total, five individuals were radio-tagged with VHF transmitters in the form of a backpack. All the tagged individuals were located twice in a day, and the location(coordinates), activity and other habitat variables were recorded. The data collected were analysed for their movement pattern, activity range and overlap between individuals and the human-dominated landscape was estimated using KDE. Along with the space use environmental variables (Ambient temperature, Relative humidity, vegetation species, canopy openness, etc) were analysed individually with behaviour to the relation between them using Fisher’s test. The results from this study add more information about its activity range, movement pattern and behavioural aspects in the mangrove landscape of India, which can be useful in the rescue, rehabilitation and management of the species.
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    Indian Grey wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) in Human dominated landscape; Movement, space use and foraging
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2023) Khan, Shaheer; Habib, Bilal
    The study presented a comprehensive investigation into the ecology of Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) within human-dominated landscapes in Maharashtra, India. The study focused on movement patterns, den and rendezvous site selection, and food habits of Indian wolves to gain insights into their adaptation strategies and ecological interactions within changing environments. Seven adult wolves (three males and four females) and four subadult wolves (two males and two females) were captured using soft leghold traps from 2017 - 2021. Trapped wolves were held using a double-threaded nylon hockey net and immobilized using Ketamine–Xylazine by injecting intramuscularly on their hind leg and fitted with GPS collars. A total of ten wolves from seven different packs were fitted with GPS collars, and one male was fitted with a proximity collar. The GPS collars were programmed for the different intervals between positions ranging from 0.5-5 hours per fix (median=1 hour), depending on the time of year and type of individual. I then scaled the data to 1 hour per fix for movement analysis. This research underscores the importance of understanding wolf movement, denning ecology, and food habits for effective conservation strategies. As human populations and habitat alterations increase, studying wolf adaptation is crucial for species-specific conservation planning.
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    Spatio-temporal and thermal ecology of Indian rock python (Python molurus, Linn. 1758) in Sathyamangalam and Mudumalai Tiger Reserves, Tamilnadu
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2023) Vishnu, C.S.; Chinnasamy, Ramesh; Talukdar, Gautam
    The Indian rock python (Python molurus) is a Schedule I species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act-1972. It is also listed as appendices I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since they face immense survival threats due to habitat degradation and poaching. This study aimed to assess those important aspects of this species. Before the major research objectives, I reviewed the snake telemetry papers between 2007 and 2017 and identified the suitable transmitter and anaesthetic for the study. It was found that the VHF AI-2 Hollohill model was the best transmitter for the study due to the animal's body plan, whereas the Isoflurane gaseous anaesthesia can be a suitable anaesthetic agent. Understanding the microhabitats used by a species is essential for its effective conservation and management. This study objective aimed to quantify the microhabitat use of Indian rock pythons in the Sathyamangalam and Mudumalai Tiger Reserves (STR & MTR), Tamil Nadu
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    Foraging ecology of Great-Slaty Woodpecker in and around Pawalgarh Conservation reserve in Western Himalaya
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2024) Kaur, Sarabjeet; Gopi, G.V.; Uniyal, V.P.
    The Great Slaty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus, Temminck 1826) is an old-world woodpecker that prefers mature and old-growth dipterocarp forests (including Shorea robusta, Sal) across its known distribution range. The study reveals population demography, the social system and foraging behavior from logged forest and infer the distribution and home range of the Great Slaty Woodpecker, a cooperative breeding bird species, in and around the Pawalgarh Conservation Reserve in the western Himalaya of Uttarakhand state. This study presents the first census conducted for the Great Slaty Woodpecker, providing an ecological baseline for the species population estimation from its known distribution range. I inferred the home range size of each group based on 161 independent sightings of 11 family groups. These sightings represent behaviors such as foraging, nesting, roosting, vocalizations, and territory defense
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    Spatio-temporal abundance and resource selection of Indian wild ass (Equus hemionus khur) and nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) with special reference to crop-depredation and people’s attitude in Little Rann of Kachchh, Gujarat.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2022) Barman, Bidyut Bikas; Chowdhury, Sushant; Shah, Nita; Qureshi, Qamar
    The harsh climatic condition and unpredictable resource availability like water is the nature of arid and semi-arid ecosystems which is epitomised by the Little Rann of Kachchh (LRK) landscape. Indian wild ass (Equus hemionus khur), a sub-species of Asiatic wild ass, idiosyncratically represent the LRK landscape which has been holding its last remaining population after it had become extinct from its previous home ranges. In my study, I emphasised on estimating population density of Khur and Nilgai, which is the other sympatric ungulate in the landscape using widely accepted and robust scientific method. Also, intensive monitoring was very challenging due to logistic limitations and large study area. I had designed my study focusing on the southern fringe of the sanctuary as the intensive study area (ISA) and conducted temporal replicates to see the density of Khur in both summer and winter. In this study, I have developed habitat suitability map of Khur and Nilgai. Apart from the resource rich areas, it is imperative to see how the habitat model suggesting potential sites based on selected environmental variables which actually shaping their distribution in the landscape. This study identified northern part of the sanctuary connected by a bottle neck with the Greater Rann of Kachchh as a potential site which demands management intervention at large scale involving other line departments ensuring a safe corridor between LRK and GRK for Khur and Nilgai. I have studied the perception and attitude of local farmers in the southern fringe towards crop-depredation. Although, with growing rural population and increase in intensive farming, the overall attitude of farmers were observed to be mixed with both positive and negative attitude reflected in their perspective towards crop-depredation by Khur