Free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris) are a major conservation issue in the tropics and adopt many ecological roles, alternatively functioning as predators, prey, or competitors of wildlife in diverse environments. Dogs are also potential reservoirs of disease that can be transmitted to both wildlife and people. Therefore a range of management interventions have been suggested to control dog populations. In order to monitor interventions to decrease dog populations, estimates of their population size are important and such methods need to be time-and cost-effective. We describe here a potential method that uses natural marks on dogs along with counts of non-marked individuals in a mark-resight framework to estimate the abundance of free-ranging dogs in a suburban area in India. Using the logit-normal mixed effects estimator to incorporate the effects of individual resighting heterogeneity, we found a total (N j ) of 680.64 ± 34.06 (95% CI = 617.22 -751.35) dogs in the study area, with an overall mean resighting probability of 0.53 ± 0.03 (95% CI = 0.47 -0.58). This corresponds to a density estimate of 57 dogs km -2 (CI = 51 -63). Given that certain assumptions are met, this method may be useful to estimate abundance of dogs where other kinds of marks may be unavailable or impractical. This method may be applied to other species of feral animals as well, where some proportion of a population has distinct natural marks.Keywords: Natural marks, free-ranging, Canis familiaris, abundance, mark-resight Résumé Les chiens errants (Canis familiaris) sont un problème de conservation majeur dans les zones tropicales et peuvent adopter différents rôles écologiques, jouant tour à tour le rôle de prédateur, proie, ou compétiteur de la faune sauvage au sein de milieux divers. En outre, les chiens sont des réservoirs potentiels de maladies pouvant être transmises aux animaux sauvages comme à l'homme. De ce fait, plusieurs modes d'interventions ont été suggérés afin de contrôler les populations de chiens. Afin de suivre ces interventions, les estimations des leur populations de chiens sont importantes et doivent être effectuées de manière rentable économiquement et en termes de temps. Nous décrivons ici une méthode potentielle basée sur les marques naturelles identifiables de certains chiens et un comptage des individus non marqués en utilisant le cadre du marquageréobservation. Cela nous permet d'estimer l'abondance des chiens errants au sein de la banlieue d'une métropole indienne. En utilisant le test Logit-Normal à effets mixtes pour intégrer l'effet de l'hétérogénéité des réobservations individuelles, nous avons trouvé un total (N j ) de 680.64 ± 34.06 (95% CI = 617.22 -751.35) chiens au sein de la zone étudiée, avec une probabilité moyenne de réobservation de 0.53 ± 0.03 (95% CI = 0.47 -0.58). Cela correspond à une estimation de la densité de 57 chiens/km -2 (CI = 51 -63). Si les hypothèses de départ sont vérifiées, cette méthode pourrait être appliquée à d'autres espèces d'animaux féraux montrant une structure de p...

Conservation interventions in developing countries are frequently thwarted by socio-economic agendas, severely limiting the scope and rigor of biodiversity and habitat conservation. Very few ecological assessments incorporate human interests in conservation prioritization, creating asynchrony between planning and implementation. For conservation actions to be logistically feasible, multiple criteria including ecological, social, economic and administrative aspects must be considered. Understanding how these different dimensions interact spatially is also important for gauging the potential for conservation success. Here, we use a guild of select mammalian carnivores (wild canids and hyenas) in India to (i) generate distribution maps at the spatial scale of administrative sub-districts, that are relevant to management, (ii) examine ecological, social and biogeographic factors associated with their distribution, assess key threats, and identify areas important for their conservation, (iii) use prioritization tools for balancing habitat conservation, human needs and economic growth, and (iv) evaluate the spatial congruence between areas with high conservation potential, and areas currently in focus for protection efforts, conservation investments, and infrastructure development. We find that the current Protected Area system does not adequately cover or represent diverse habitats, that there is immense potential for States to increase financial investments towards alternative conservation strategies, and, most infrastructure projects may be potentially jeopardizing important carnivore habitats where the two overlap. Our framework allowed for identifying locations where conservation investments would lead to the highest benefits for carnivores as flagships, which also benefit other species across habitats. We make a case for re-evaluating how large-scale prioritization assessments are made, and for broadening the purview of conservation policies in India and other developing countries.

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Fragmentation of native habitats is now a ubiquitous phenomenon affecting wildlife at various scales. We examined selection of den-sites (n = 26) by Indian foxes (Vulpes bengalensis) in a highly modified short-grassland landscape in central India (Jan-May, 2010). At the scale of the home-range, defined by an 800 m circular buffer around den sites, we examined the effect of land-cover edges and roads on selection of sites for denning using a distance-based approach. At the smaller den-area scale, defined by a 25 m x 25 m plot around den and paired available sites, the effect of microhabitat characteristics was examined using discrete-choice models. Indian foxes selected den-sites closer to native grasslands (t = -9.57, P < 0.001) and roads (t = -2.04, P = 0.05) than random at the home-range scale. At the smaller scale, abundance of rodents and higher visibility increased the odds of selection of a site by eight and four times respectively, indicating resource availability and predator avoidance to be important considerations for foxes. Indian foxes largely chose to den in human-made structures, indicated by the proportion of dens found in earthen bunds (0.69) and boulder piles (0.27) in the study area. With agricultural expansion and human modification threatening native short-grassland habitats, their conservation and effective management in human-dominated landscapes will benefit the Indian fox. The presence of some human-made structures within native grasslands would also be beneficial for this den-dependent species. We suggest future studies examine the impact of fragmentation and connectivity of grasslands on survival and reproductive success of the Indian fox.

Tigers (Panthera tigris) are wide-ranging species, and a permeable landscape matrix outside Protected Areas (PAs) is extremely important for their dispersal. A tigress which had fallen in a water duct in the Nagpur district was rescued by the Forest Department on 12 th October, 2011 and released on 27 th November, 2011 in a forest adjacent to the site of capture. A GPS-GSM collar that we fitted on her indicated that she remained in the same forest area until 25 th December, 2011, and then moved eastwards into a human-dominated landscape where she was present until 25 th March, 2012, after which the GPS battery ceased to function. She moved a minimum distance of 454.65 km from the time of her release up to 25 th March, 2012, using a total area of 726 km 2 (95% MCP), but between 30 th December, 2011 and 25 th March, 2012, after moving into the human-dominated forestagricultural landscape her home range was 431 km 2 (95% MCP). Her home range also encompassed villages, roads and croplands. Her activity was largely nocturnal and she rested in dense foliage inside forest patches during the day. About half of all the prey items that we identified during this period (n = 12) were wild pigs (Sus scrofa). Although, she was present very close to areas where humans were active in the day, no untoward incident occurred. She was photographed in April 2013, a year after the collar stopped functioning, in the same region about 40 km from the release site, indicating that she is still present in the human-dominated area. Very little is known about tiger ecology, and their temporal and spatial patterns of movement, outside PAs. These areas will be crucial in terms of dispersal between PAs as well as sensitive in terms of conflict.

Heterogeneous landscapes harboring mosaics of natural habitat and agriculture are increasingly gaining conservation focus in the tropics. While research on cash crops such as coffee, rubber, and oil palm has led to an understanding of their role as supplementary habitats, such has remained limited in cashew plantations despite it being a cash crop of global significance. We conducted a study to understand the occurrence of terrestrial mammal species in a mixed forest–cashew landscape in the northern Western Ghats, India. During January to April 2016, we used trail cameras to sample a total area of 25 km2 divided into 100 grid cells of 0.25 km2 each. We deployed six trail cameras for a 24 h period in each grid cell and obtained photo-captures of 11 species in forests, of which nine were detected in cashew plantations, but most species showed low capture rates. For three of these species—Indian crested porcupine, sambar, and wild pig—we modeled habitat use as a function of site-specific attributes. Wild pig showed a higher probability of use of cashew than forest, while porcupine and sambar did not show any pronounced differences between the two land uses. The probability of habitat use by sambar and porcupine was positively influenced by undergrowth but not for the wild pig. Wild pig habitat use was positively related to increased proximity of human settlements and increasing distance to forests, but the pattern was unreliable for sambar and porcupine. Our preliminary study demonstrates that a subset of terrestrial mammals in the forest makes use of cashew plantations and highlights the need for further research in forest–cashew landscapes to assess conservation opportunities.

Wildlife crimes pertaining to lesser-known species do not usually garner adequate focus or interest by enforcement and conservation agencies.  Additionally, illegal wildlife trade fuelled by religious beliefs in sorcery and superstition is an oft-neglected field of research.  To draw attention to these two broad issues, we provide a baseline analysis of open-source reports on Golden Jackal Canis aureus poaching and trade in India.  We highlight the pervasiveness of an active local and transnational ‘jackal horn’ trade, which is severely under-reported and insufficiently researched.  News reports and government seizure data reveal that, between 2013 and 2019, 126 skins, eight tails, more than 370 ‘jackal horns’, 16 skulls and two live jackals have been seized.  The demand for the illusionary ‘jackal horn’ appears to be driven by extensive online endorsement and unsubstantiated claims made by religious practitioners, targeted primarily at south Asian markets.  This preliminary study is an urgent call for concerted efforts to monitor the illegal trafficking and trade of this common species, with a particular focus on the demand and supply chains.

1. Large carnivores face high extinction risks, often exacerbated by the absence of adequate information on their ecological requirements, and the high economic and socio-political commitments that their conservation warrants. Country-scale conservation plans can serve as effective frameworks to prioritise areas, actions, and conservation investments. 2. We explore conservation tenets of retention, recovery, and restoration for the Endangered dhole Cuon alpinus in India-a global stronghold for the species. Specifically, we: 1) examine the current status of dholes in India's states using a recent distribution assessment; 2) identify areas for directing management interventions-zones to be targeted for population recovery and for habitat recovery; 3) identify potential areas for range expansion; 4) use eco-socio-political criteria to determine state-wise conservation priority scores and likelihood of conservation action; and 5) conduct an exhaustive review of all published literature on dholes. 3. Dholes occupy ~49% of potential habitats in 685 of mainland India's 2342 sub-districts. We identified 143 sub-districts with potential for dhole population recovery, 145 for habitat recovery, and 404 for range expansion. Of the 34 mainland states/union territories, 17 were identified as high priority for dhole conservation. Of these, nine are adequately equipped to implement management actions to conserve dholes, while eight need to improve capacity towards increasing likelihood of conservation success. 4. Literature on dholes (from 1874 to 2019; n=237) was dominated by natural history notes, followed by distribution records and studies of population ecology. A majority of the reviewed studies were from India (55% of 215 countryspecific papers). The number of studies showed an exponential increase over time: 43% were published in the last decade. 5. Our review of published literature revealed significant knowledge gaps in terms of quantitative ecological assessments across all dhole range-countries. Given this context, our results provide a comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and administratively feasible road map for dhole conservation in India, with potential applicability in other dhole range-countries and also for other threatened species.