Status of Tigers, Co-Predator and Prey in Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary 2021

Abstract

Phase IV monitoring for the Tipeshwar Wildlife sanctuary was conducted from March –April (2021) as part of the project “Long Term Monitoring of Tigers, Co-Predators and Prey species in Vidarbha Landscape, Maharashtra, India”. The exercise aimed to cover an area of 148.63 km2 of the entire sanctuary. The objective of Phase IV Monitoring is to estimate the minimum number of tigers in the Tipeshwar WLS using Spatially-Explicit-Capture-Recapture Sampling and density estimation of prey base using Distance Sampling. 62 pairs of camera traps were placed in the forested area of Tipeshwar WLS following a sampling grid of 2 sq. km. in one block. The camera traps were active for 30 days yielding a sampling effort of 2206 trap nights of data which is used for further analysis. Tiger density per 100 km. sq. based on the Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) model was 7.07 (SE ± 0.218) in the sanctuary while that of leopards based on the same method was 3.86 (SE ±0.165). To estimate prey density, 13 line-transects were laid randomly all over the division and were sampled 7 times during the sampling period, with a total walking effort of 182 km was invested. The observations include chital (Axis axis), sambar (Rusa unicolor), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), langur (Semnopithecus sp), wild boar (Sus scrofa), chinkara (Gazella bennetii), Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), Indian hare (Lepus nigricollis) and peafowl (Pavo cristatus). As per the observations, Nilgai (n=50) is the most observed species followed by Chital (n=27). The overall prey density of Tipeshwar WLS is 17.82 (SE± 3.81). Due to low number of observations densities of chousingha, chinkara, blackbuck, langur, Indian hare, peafowl, sambar, wild boar could not be estimated. To study the activity, we used the camera trap images. The times recorded on camera trap photos provide information on the period during the day that a species is most active. Species active at the same periods may interact as predator and prey, or as competitors. Sensors that record active animals (e.g. camera traps) build up a record of the distribution of activity over the day. Records are more frequent when animals are more active and less frequent or absent when animals are inactive. The area under the distribution of records thus contains information on the overall level of activity in a sampled population.