A whistle in the woods: an ethogram and activity budget for the dhole in central India

Ghaskadbi, Pallavi; Habib, Bilal; Qureshi, Qamar

doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyw141

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This is consistent with Johnsingh (1982); Karanth and Sunquist (2000); Acharya (2007); Kawanishi and Sunquist (2008) and Majumder (2011) who found that dholes mostly hunt prey during the day time especially in the morning and afternoon, which is different from tigers and leopards that hunt during the night time until the morning. However, Ghaskadbi et al (2016) reported that dholes at the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, India, have the activity pattern as a crepuscular activity pattern as in the report by Nurvianto et al (2016) which studied dholes on Java Island, Indonesia, which shows that dholes have the ability to adapt their hunting times. The most important factor in maintaining the dhole population is maintaining the ungulate population in the area, especially muntjac, sambar, lesser mouse-deer, and wild boar by increasing and improving grassland, austerity of maintenance, and garbage and dirt disposal from tourism activities in the area for ecological health, especially in controlling the pests that may occur in wildlife affecting both prey and carnivorous wildlife due to the human activity in the habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Abundance, prey, and activity period of dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Khoewsree N, Charaspet K, Sukmasuang R, Songsasen N, Pla-ard M, Thongbantum J, Kongchaloem W, Srinopawan K. 2020. Abundance, prey, and activity period of dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. Biodiversitas 21: 345-354. The abundance and occupancy of dholes in Khao Yai National Park are the highest among found carnivorous mammals. This demonstrates the importance of the home range of dholes. From the scat analysis, eight species of mammals that are prey can be identified. The dholes mainly consume ungulates when considering the most percentage of relative biomass consumed were ungulate species. For the number of prey animals consumed by dholes per year, a dhole consumes 25.94 prey animals per year which consist of 6.51 masked palm civets, 6.44 Asian palm civets, 4.55 muntjac, 3.97 lesser mouse-deer, 2.22 large Indian civets, 1.03 wild boars, 0.66 sambar, and 0.56 porcupines. From the daily activity pattern captured by the camera trap, dholes have an average activity period of 14:49 hours. Therefore, they are mostly diurnal. The results of the study confirm that Khao Yai National Park is an important habitat of dholes. To maintain the population of dholes in the area, the most important factor is maintaining the ungulate population in the area, especially muntjac, sambar, lesser mouse-deer, and wild boar by increasing and improving the quality of grassland, austerity of maintenance, garbage and dirt disposal from tourism activities in the area for ecological health, and public relations for dholes’ conservation in the long-term.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Abundance, prey, and activity period of dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

et al. 2020

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“…Gaining information about the when and where of scent marking of wild animals is a non-trivial methodological issue. Camera traps provide a means to study free-living animals and have provided valuable insights for wild canids 24,25 . However, these animals are prompted to scent-mark by a stimulus placed by the researcher, and so do not offer insight into the typical spatial distribution of scent marks or the nuances of their use in intra-species communication.…”

Section: Limited Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring canid scent marking in space and time using a biologging and machine learning approach

Bidder

Virgilio

Hunter

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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for canid species, scent marking plays a critical role in territoriality, social dynamics, and reproduction. However, due in part to human dependence on vision as our primary sensory modality, research on olfactory communication is hampered by a lack of tractable methods. in this study, we leverage a powerful biologging approach, using accelerometers in concert with GpS loggers to monitor and describe scent-marking events in time and space. We performed a validation experiment with domestic dogs, monitoring them by video concurrently with the novel biologging approach. We attached an accelerometer to the pelvis of 31 dogs (19 males and 12 females), detecting raised-leg and squat posture urinations by monitoring the change in device orientation. We then deployed this technique to describe the scent marking activity of 3 guardian dogs as they defend livestock from coyote depredation in California, providing an example use-case for the technique. During validation, the algorithm correctly classified 92% of accelerometer readings. High performance was partly due to the conspicuous signatures of archetypal raised-leg postures in the accelerometer data. Accuracy did not vary with the weight, age, and sex of the dogs, resulting in a method that is broadly applicable across canid species' morphologies. We also used models trained on each individual to detect scent marking of others to emulate the use of captive surrogates for model training. We observed no relationship between the similarity in body weight between the dog pairs and the overall accuracy of predictions, although models performed best when trained and tested on the same individual. We discuss how existing methods in the field of movement ecology can be extended to use this exciting new data type. This paper represents an important first step in opening new avenues of research by leveraging the power of modern-technologies and machine-learning to this field. Scent marking is a critically important form of olfactory communication, shaping affiliative and agonistic interactions within and across species. The use of scent marks provides animals a means to defend resources 1,2 , advertise availability to mates 3-5 , and communicate with conspecifics 6,7. It also serves to minimise the risk of injuries from agonistic encounters with potential competitors 2. Prey species are also known to 'eavesdrop' on these communications to avoid contact with their predators 8. Thus, scent marking is a critical communication system, the nuances of which dictate where animals occur on the landscape, with implications for individual fitness and, ultimately, population dynamics. Despite its importance, research on this and other forms of olfactory communication in the wild is hampered by a lack of tractable methods. This is due in part to human dependence on vision as our primary sensory modality. If new methods could be developed that address the deficiencies in our olfactory senses using modern technology, this could open up numerous avenues for future research on this significa...

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“…We identified and described discrete fox behaviours to create an ethogram sensitive to wariness of foxes to predation while accessing resource points. We characterised fox behaviours from literature in ethology [25,48,49,50], animal personality [51], and animal welfare [52], and from assessments made by captive fox carers (Sydney Fox Rescue). The ethogram was first organised into base behaviours, describing key actions such as locomotion and foraging (Table 2).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Wily and Courageous Red Fox: Behavioural Analysis of a Mesopredator at Resource Points Shared by an Apex Predator

Wooster

Wallach

Ramp

2019

Animals

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Simple SummaryThe red fox is one of the Earth’s most widespread mammalian predators. Human globalisation has further expanded its range, so that today they are found on most continents. Despite their abundance, knowledge of fox behaviour remains limited. Most studies have observed foxes either in captivity or in their native range where both they and their predators are killed by humans. We conducted a behavioural study on foxes outside of their native range in Australia, at a unique location where all wildlife are protected. We developed an ethogram to explore fox behaviour at resource points shared with a potentially deadly apex predator, the dingo. We were surprised to find that foxes were in a confident state more often than in a cautious state, even leaving territorial markings over those of dingoes. One possible explanation for the confidence of foxes is that the social stability of both foxes and dingoes makes their world more predictable.AbstractThe red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a widespread and ecologically significant terrestrial mesopredator, that has expanded its range with human globalisation. Despite this, we know relatively little about their behaviour under the wide range of ecological conditions they experience, particularly how they navigate the risk of encounters with apex predators. We conducted the first ethological study of foxes outside their historic native range, in Australia, where both the foxes and their main predator were protected from human hunting. Using remote camera traps, we recorded foxes visiting key resource points regularly utilised by territorial dingoes (Canis dingo), their local apex predator, in the Painted Desert, South Australia. We constructed an ethogram sensitive to a range of behaviours and attitudes. Since foxes are suppressed by dingoes, we expected that the foxes would primarily be in a cautious state. In contrast, we found that foxes were in a confident state most of the time. Where human hunting is absent, social stability of predators may increase predictability and therefore decrease fear.

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A whistle in the woods: an ethogram and activity budget for the dhole in central India

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

Abundance, prey, and activity period of dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Abundance, prey, and activity period of dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

Monitoring canid scent marking in space and time using a biologging and machine learning approach

The Wily and Courageous Red Fox: Behavioural Analysis of a Mesopredator at Resource Points Shared by an Apex Predator

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