Distribution and demography of carnivores in some parts of semi-arid landscape of Western India.

Abstract

The present study reveals long-term research on tigers, elaborating their vital rates, survival parameters, and dispersal. The camera trap data to estimate the spatially explicit density, space use, and time-activity pattern of leopards. A combination of techniques that included radio telemetry, camera traps, direct observations, and photo documentation was used to obtain 3492 observations on 97 individually known tigers in Ranthambhore between 2006-2014 to estimate demographic parameters that estimates collated over nine years from 97 individually known tigers and annual density estimates of Ranthambhore tiger population from camera traps. This study aimed to estimate the demographic parameters of Ranthambhore tigers, and subsequently compare them with other tiger populations. Two species occupancy was used to estimate the spatial co-occurrence of tiger and leopard in Ranthambhore. As a long-term conservation strategy, this semi-arid tiger population needs to be conserved in a metapopulation framework. The species distribution modelling showed the importance of the PAs and also highlighted areas to direct conservation investments outside the protected areas.