Importance of Native Grassland Habitat for Den-Site Selection of Indian Foxes in a Fragmented Landscape

Punjabi, Girish Arjun; Chellam, Ravi; Vanak, Abi Tamim

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076410

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Although desert foxes seem to avoid thick vegetation at the landscape scale, at scale of the den site, they selected areas having higher vegetation cover than the surrounding open flats. This is similar to what is seen in several other species of open habitat foxes such as the swift fox, Vulpes velox (Uresk et al 2003), kit fox, Vulpes macrotis (Arjo et al 2003) and the Indian fox V. bengalensis (Punjabi et al 2013). At the broader scale, desert fox dens were located in areas that were closer to water sources, as this is a strongly limited resource.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

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Occupancy and diet of the Indian desert fox Vulpes vulpes pusilla in a Prosopis juliflora invaded semi-arid grassland

Misher

Vanak

2021

Wildlife Biology

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Encroachment by woody invasive plants has been recognized as a major driver of structural change in grasslands ecosystems. The impact of invasive plant-mediated changes on mammalian species from higher trophic levels is relatively less understood. This study aims to understand the impact of woody encroachment on the ecology of a relatively understudied mesopredator, the Indian desert fox Vulpes v. pusilla in a semi-arid saline grassland ecosystem in Western India. We examined the site occupancy of the Indian desert fox at the landscape level, and den site selection at the micro-habitat scale. We also examined the diet of desert foxes during winter and summer season. We found that at the landscape level the desert fox selects more open Suaeda saline habitats over dense invasive Prosopis juliflora dominated habitats. At the scale of the den, proximity to water and vegetation cover were the main drivers of den site selection. Similar to other arid zone foxes, insects, plant materials and small mammals were the main components of the diet of Indian desert fox. Given its selection of open habitats, invasive shrub encroachment is likely to result in a loss of habitat as well as resources for this species, potentially impacting on the conservation status of this already range-restricted species in India.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…To collect data for evaluating micro-habitat characteristics, the design implemented by Punjabi et al (2013) was used. We recorded visibility, number of rodent burrows, spiny-tail lizard's burrows and number of shrubs within a 25 × 25 meter north-oriented plot with the den site as the center (Fig.…”

Section: Den Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occupancy and diet of the Indian desert fox Vulpes vulpes pusilla in a Prosopis juliflora invaded semi-arid grassland

Misher

Vanak

2021

Wildlife Biology

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“…Such huge loss of habitats has also affected the survival of the grassland-dependent fauna (~5% of bird species and ~6% of mammalian biodiversity globally) (Clark, 1989;Zavaleta and Hulvey, 2004;Ceballos et al, 2010). This problem is particularly acute in regions where significant amount of grasslands and associated biodiversity exist outside the protected area network (Henwood, 1998;Mathur and Midha, 2008;Karanth et al, 2010;Harihar, 2011;Punjabi et al, 2013;Punjabi and Rao, 2017;Dorji et al, 2019;Deák et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waning grasslands: a quantitative temporal evaluation of the grassland habitats across human-dominated upper Gangetic Plains, north India

Paul

Saha

Nigam

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Grassland habitats currently face severe anthropogenic exploitations leading to cascading effects on the survival of grassland-dependent biodiversity globally, particularly in non-protected areas. Significant amount of such biodiversity-rich grasslands in India are found outside protected areas but lack quantitative information on their status. We evaluated the current and historical (30 years) status of the grasslands using a combination of intensive field surveys and GIS tools across one of the most fertile, human-dominated region: the upper Gangetic Plains of north India. On-ground mapping and visual classifications revealed 57% decline in grassland habitats between 1985 (418 km2) and 2015 (178km2), mostly driven by conversion to croplands (74% contribution). Radio-telemetry data from the largest endemic cervid swamp deer (n=2) showed grassland-dominated average home range (50% BBMM) size of 1.02 km2. The animals highly preferred these patches (average Ivlevs index- 0.85) and showed the highest temporal continuity (88%) compared to other LULC classes. Camera trapping within the core habitats suggests critical use of these patches as fawning/breeding grounds. Habitat suitability analysis indicates only ~18% of the entire area along the Ganges is suitable for swamp deer. Accurate mapping (86% accuracy) and characterization of four major grass species revealed a total 144.04 km2 vegetation area, dominated by Saccharum sp. (35%). We recommend protection and recovery of these critical grassland patches to maintain dynamic corridors and other appropriate management strategies involving multiple stakeholders to ensure survival of this critical ecosystem. Such evaluations, if spatially expanded, would be critical to restore this rapidly vanishing ecosystem worldwide.

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“…Rangelands are indeed an important type of the managed-grasslands categories, in which grasslands were assessed to cover 31.5% of the landmass worldwide, and play a massive role in controlling the global cycle of carbon ( Franzluebbers, 2010 ), in addition to encouraging plant-animal biodiversity ( Pokluda et al, 2012 , Punjabi et al, 2013 ). According to species structure, rangelands are populated by native herbaceous/shrubbery vegetation that is a feed supply equally for domestic and wild herbivores, available in terms of desert shrublands, steppes, shrub woodlands and savannas ( Ali et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial analysis of rangeland's vegetation intensity as related to selected physical soil variables over ABQAIQ municipality of Saudi Arabia

Alzarah

Hassaballa

Salih

2021

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

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Through most of the natural rangelands of Saudi Arabia, overgrazing, sand drifting, and off-road vehicles driving are almost the major contributing factors that lead to vegetation damage and land degradation in natural landscapes. The current study aimed at examining the dynamic nature of Abqaiq rangelands' vegetation, generating a vegetation intensity map, and investigating possible impacts caused by the spatial variability of obtained soil texture, sand content (%), and the derived available water capacity (DAW capacity (%)) on the intensity distribution of vegetation cover. Ordinal-nominal correlation type and spatial autocorrelation processes were adopted throughout the study to analyze the spatial correspondences as well as the interrelated patterns of the given variables. The resultant correlation between vegetation and soil texture (ordinal versus nominal variables) has yielded a significant (p-value < 0.001) relevancies, where, silt loam texture class, in particular, has proven to have the most correlated values to the most intensive vegetation habitats, where 5%, 35%, and 28% of the silt loam class were occupied by 80%, 60%, and 40% of vegetation intensities, respectively. Whereas, for the continuous variables, correlation outcomes have achieved a substantial negative spatial autocorrelation concerning vegetation intensity and sand content percentage, revealing a total absence of green biomass over the sandy soils. Additionally, vegetation intensity versus DAW capacity percentage significantly yielded a positive autocorrelation, revealing a high clustering of green biomass cover that associates with high clustering of high-water capacity soils. The autocorrelation strength identifier (Morn's I ), produced an approximate value of 0.3 with a pseudo p -value of 0.001, for both relationships. The findings of this study would help researchers and relative authorities to grasp the reasons, consequences and behaviors of rangeland flora, considering Abqaiq's area as an example.

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Importance of Native Grassland Habitat for Den-Site Selection of Indian Foxes in a Fragmented Landscape

Cited by 16 publications

References 34 publications

Occupancy and diet of the Indian desert fox Vulpes vulpes pusilla in a Prosopis juliflora invaded semi-arid grassland

Occupancy and diet of the Indian desert fox Vulpes vulpes pusilla in a Prosopis juliflora invaded semi-arid grassland

Waning grasslands: a quantitative temporal evaluation of the grassland habitats across human-dominated upper Gangetic Plains, north India

Spatial analysis of rangeland's vegetation intensity as related to selected physical soil variables over ABQAIQ municipality of Saudi Arabia

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