Ecological status of the lion-tailed Macaque and its rainforest habitats in Karnataka, India

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Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL): the death Knell and beyond

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Carnivore conservation at the crossroads

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Status of wildlife and habitat conservation in Karnataka

This paper reviews the status of wildlife and habitats of Karnataka State in India. The overview briefly covers (i) Available habitat types in the major biogeogra-phic zones of the state; (ii) Current distribution of important mammalian species; (iii) Protection status of wildlife and habitats in the recent years; and (iv) The existing and proposed nature reserve areas in Karnataka

Bhadra wildlife sanctuary and its endangered ecosystem

Remnants of Karnataka's once grand wildlife are now concentrated in a few forest pockets in and around Western Ghats. The little known Bhadra wildlife sanctuary, is one such area, potentially superior to many of our better known wildlife habitats. It has many features which make it a priority area for conservation and environmental management. It is ironical that this area, which owes its uniqueness to an irrigation project, is now being threatened by ecologically ill-conceived developmental activities of rather dubious economic value

Enhancing conservation science capacity in India: first decade of the Master's programme in wildlife biology and conservation

India is a mega biodiverse country but, with a human population of 1.2 billion and aspirations for further economic growth, conservation of this biodiversity faces huge challenges. A decade ago, identifying the need for strong academic programmes to train conservation professionals, the Wildlife Conservation Society collaborated with the National Centre for Biological Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research to initiate a Master's degree programme in wildlife biology and conservation, comprising cutting-edge course modules taught by practising scientists and conservationists, followed by a dissertation. The programme trains a cohort of 15 students every 2 years, and the fifth cohort graduated in September 2014. In all, 74 budding conservationists have graduated in the programme's first decade. Their field research has spanned multiple species and ecosystems in 20 Indian states, and alumni of the course now form the core of many academic and conservation institutions. The alumni have engaged in practical conservation initiatives, driving both policy and practice in India by setting high standards of research and science-based conservation. The sixth cohort of 15 students began their training in July 2014

Photographic database informs management of conflict tigers

The increasing interface between people and wildlife contributes to human–wildlife conflict in many conservation landscapes. In India animals suspected to be involved in conflict are often captured and translocated to different locations or zoological parks. A key concern in the capture of so-called problem animals has been the identification of individuals involved in conflict. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India Program, in collaboration with research partners, has aided government officials in this matter through its research on tigers in the Malenad Tiger Landscape, south-west India. As part of a research programme initiated in 1991, WCS India has formulated a protocol for individual identification of tigers, based on their stripe patterns. Using pattern-matching software that aids quick and reliable identification of tigers from photographs (Hiby et al., 2009, Biology Letters, 5, 383-386, a photographic database has been developed, with > 750 individually identified tigers from 60 protected areas totalling > 38,000 km2, and elsewhere, in India. Ancillary information on home ranges, activity patterns and sociobiology of conflict-tigers provides a unique opportunity for informed management of the species. This long-term, ongoing study is funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India, Vision Group on Science & Technology of the Government of Karnataka, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York. Two recent cases of human–tiger conflict in the Malenad Tiger Landscape exemplify the utility of this database and long-term monitoring for conflict mitigation. One incident, on 27 December 2013, involved the loss of human life in Bandipur National Park, and the other, on 1-2 January 2014, involved the killing of cattle in a village adjoining Nagarahole National Park. In the latter incident a dead cow was used as bait to capture the tiger involved. In the incident in Bandipur photographs from camera traps set up in the area of conflict were matched to individuals in the database. One individual was identified in nine of the 15 photographs obtained and, as the location of conflict was well beyond its home range, it was identified as the conflict individual and was subsequently captured. The tigers from both incidents have been transferred to a nearby zoo. The Forest Department debated relocation of the individuals but this was not pursued. Both of the tigers involved in these incidents had been photographed previously multiple times. The tiger in Bandipur had been photographed over the last 5 years and was probably an old individual past its prime. The tiger in Nagarahole was 2–3 years old and had only been photographed in the previous year. The distances between the locations of previous photographs and the location of conflict were 4–8 km for the tiger in Bandipur and 35 km for the tiger in Nagarahole. The observation of the Nagarahole individual with another male in two photographs suggests that this individual was dispersing from its natal home range to establish a breeding territory. Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks have high tiger densities (10-15 tigers per 100 km2 ) with c. 20% of the population lost annually to mortality and emigration. It is likely that the Nagarahole individual was emigrating from the reserve. The infrequency of dispersal events, particularly in human-dominated landscapes such as the Malenad Tiger Landscape, suggests that the removal of the Nagarahole tiger, a potential long-distance disperser, may have detrimental effects on the long-term population viability of tigers in this landscape. In contrast, the removal of the Bandipur tiger will probably have negligible effects on the population, although any relocation into an existing tiger population would be likely to cause further conflict (Athreya et al.,2011, Conservation Biology, 25, 133–141). Mitigation of conflict is frequently ad hoc, with management authorities pressurized into quick but often ineffective action. In these two contrasting examples, alternative actions could have had very different consequences. In areas where data on the age, reproductive status and ranging patterns of conflict animals are available, this information should be used to direct conflict mitigation strategies such that they are maximally effective whilst inflicting least harm on species viability

Evaluating camera trapping as a method for estimating cheetah abundance in ranching areas

In order to accurately assess the status of the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus it is necessary to obtain data on numbers and demographic trends. However, cheetahs are notoriously difficult to survey because they occur at very low population densities and are often shy and elusive. In South Africa the problem is further complicated in areas where land is privately owned, restricting access, with dense bush and cheetahs that are frequently persecuted. Cheetahs are individually identifiable by their unique spot patterns, making them ideal candidates for capture-recapture surveys. Photographs of cheetahs were obtained using four camera traps placed successively at a total of 12 trap locations in areas of known cheetah activity within a 300 km2 area in the Thabazimbi district of the Limpopo Province. During 10 trapping periods, five different cheetahs were photographed. These results were used to generate capture histories for each cheetah and the data were analysed using the capture-recapture software package CAPTURE. Closure tests indicated that the population was closed (P = 0.056). The Mh model was used to deal with possible heterogeneous capture probabilities among individual cheetahs. Closure tests did not reject the model assumption of population closure (P = 0.056). The Mh model produced a capture probability of 0.17 with an estimate of 6-14 cheetahs (P = 0.95) and a mean population size of seven cheetahs (S.E. = 1.93). These results are promising and will be improved with employment of more camera traps and sampling a larger area

On a Dhole trail: examining ecological and anthropogenic correlates of Dhole habitat occupancy in the Western Ghats of India

Although they play a critical role in shaping ecological communities, many threatened predator species are data-deficient. The Dhole Cuon alpinus is one such rare canid with a global population thought to be < 2500 wild individuals. We assessed habitat occupancy patterns of dholes in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India, to understand ecological and anthropogenic determinants of their distribution and habitat-use. We conducted spatially replicated detection/non-detection surveys of dhole signs along forest trails at two appropriate scales: the entire landscape and a single wildlife reserve. Landscape-scale habitat occupancy was assessed across 38,728 km2 surveying 206 grid cells of 188-km2 each. Finer scale habitat-use within 935 km2 Bandipur Reserve was studied surveying 92 grid cells of 13-km2 km each. We analyzed the resulting data of dhole signs using likelihood-based habitat occupancy models. The models explicitly addressed the problematic issue of imperfect detection of dhole signs during field surveys as well as potential spatial auto-correlation between sign detections made on adjacent trail segments. We show that traditional ‘presence versus absence’ analyses underestimated dhole habitat occupancy by 60% or 8682 km2 [naïve  =  0.27; ≏ ψL (SE) =  0.68 (0.08)] in the landscape. Addressing imperfect sign detections by estimating detection probabilities [ˆpt(L) (SE)  =  0.12 (0.11)] was critical for reliable estimation. Similar underestimation occurred while estimating habitat-use probability at reserve-scale [naïve  =  0.39; ˆψs (SE) =  0.71 (0.06)]. At landscape scale, relative abundance of principal ungulate prey primarily influenced dhole habitat occupancy. Habitat-use within a reserve, however, was predominantly and negatively influenced by anthropogenic disturbance. Our results are the first rigorous assessment of dhole occupancy at multiple spatial scales with potential conservation value. The approach used in this study has potential utility for cost-effectively assessing spatial distribution and habitat-use in other species, landscapes and reserves