Movement and Activity Pattern of a Collared Tigress in a Human-Dominated Landscape in Central India

Abstract

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.

Movement and home range characteristics of reintroduced tiger (Panthera tigris) population in Panna Tiger Reserve, central India

“…Given that the tiger is a secretive and elusive species, understanding such behavioural responses is highly challenging, unless equipped with suitable monitoring tools, such as radio or GPS telemetry. There has not been many previous studies which could utilize such technological inputs and where it was attempted, except for the long-term study carried out in Chitwan National Park during the 1980s (Sunquist 1981;Smith 1993); sample sizes had always been low, constraining data quality and interpretations (Seidensticker 1976(Seidensticker , 2010Chundawat 1997;Chundawat et al 2016;Karanth and Sunquist 2000;Smith 1984;Sankar et al 2010;Barlow et al 2011;Athreya et al 2014;Sharma et al 2010Sharma et al , 2011Chakravarty 2009;Majumder et al 2012;Schaller 2009). Dispersal events to a new environment reflect the ability of the animals to implement decision process linked to fitness (Smith 1993).…”

“…These included one telemetry (Goodrich et al 2010) and four snow tracking studies (Matyushkin 1978;Poddubnaya and Kovalev 1993;Salkina 1993;Yudakov and Nikolaev 1987) on Amur tigers; 12 telemetry-based studies (Seidensticker 1976;Sunquist 1981Sunquist , 2010Chundawat 1997;Chundawat et al 1999;Karanth and Sunquist 2000;Smith 1984;Sankar et al 2010;Barlow et al 2011;Athreya et al 2014;Sharma et al 2011;Chakravarty 2009;Majumder et al 2012), one camera trap-based study (Sharma et al 2010) and one field observation-based home range study (Schaller 2009) on Indian tiger; three radio telemetry-based (Report ZSL 2003;Priatna et al 2012;Maddox et al 2007) and one camera trap-based projects (Franklin et al 1999) on Sumatran tigers. Majority of these studies (18 studies) estimated home ranges based on 100 % MCP, while only few studies adopted other methods for home range estimations (three studies with 95 % MCP and two studies with 95 % FK methods).…”

Maintaining tiger connectivity and minimizing extinction into the next century: Insights from landscape genetics and spatially-explicit simulations

“…Our results are supported by empirical data on tiger movement. Recent data from radio-collared tigers reveals that long distance dispersing tigers do not avoid agriculture-village matrix and cross low traffic roads (Athreya et al . 2014; Krishnamurthy et al .…”

“…Tigers are habitat generalists (ranging from 0-3000 meters above sea level), their occurrence is associated with forests in the CIL and they have been reported to avoid desserts and short grasslands (Kitchener and Dugmore 2000, Yumnam et al 2014). Athreya et al . (2014) revealed that tigers disperse through and use less rugged areas in Central India.…”

New insights into the factors influencing movements and spatial distribution of reintroduced Bengal tigers ( Panthera tigris tigris ) in the human-dominated buffer zone of Panna Tiger Reserve, India

“…The current understanding of tigers in India is based on protected areas, where human activity is restricted (Athreya et al 2014). Knowledge of how tigers use areas outside the protected areas is not available and creates uncertainty regarding the tigers' use of forests with human presence and activity.…”