Research Article: Majgaonkar, I., Vaidyanathan, S., Srivathsa, A., Shivakumar, S., Limaye, S., & Athreya, V. (2019). Land‐sharing potential of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes of western India. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(5), e34.

Blog Author: Dolsy David

Highlights:

  • The protected area (PA) network is often insufficient to sustain species with large home ranges and thus, animals tend to use human-dominated landscapes; little is known about the adaptability and types of interactions between such species and people.
  • The authors used an interview framework to capture the presence or absence of three large carnivore species in semi-arid regions of Western Maharashtra, examine their distribution, and key drivers for their presence in human-modified landscapes.
  • Of the three large carnivores, leopards, wolves, and hyenas were recorded in 57%, 64%, and 75% of the study area, respectively.
  • The extent of built-up areas was unfavorable for the presence of all three carnivores but was differentially favored by certain types of agriculture.
  • This study showcases the ability of the three carnivores to adapt in human-modified landscapes, and the authors call for the inclusion of such potential habitats during conservation planning that currently focus only on forested PAs.

The semi-arid region is a type of landscape that receives low rainfall and is dominated by bushes and sparse tree cover. The British colonial administration categorized these as ‘wasteland’ due to their lack of economic value. This continues to be the major justification for the accelerated and ill-conceived large-scale conversion of these lands for agriculture, infrastructure development, and industrial use. Recently, the ecological significance of these distinctive human-modified landscapes as potential habitats for wild animals that can adapt to rapid changes has been appreciated. 

Protected areas (PA) such as wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and reserved forests cannot sustain many wide-ranging, low-density wildlife species. Such species often exist outside PAs,  overlapping with human-used areas, resulting in various forms of interactions. Large carnivores persist in these shared spaces due to their resilience, existing conservation policies, and tolerance for them by communities in many countries including India. Continued interactions, especially when negative, may result in a loss of tolerance for them by the local communities and a subsequent decline in wildlife populations through retaliation. While historically humans and large carnivores have shared spaces, most management and research efforts are targeted at animal populations residing only inside PAs. 

The current study published in 2019 was led by Iravati Majgaonkar from the Centre for Wildlife Studies in collaboration with others from various institutes. The researchers investigated the pattern of occurrences and factors responsible for the existence of three large carnivores, namely leopard Panthera pardus, Indian grey wolf Canis lupus pallipes, and striped hyena Hyaena hyaena, in a highly populated human-used semi-arid landscape. Assessment of large carnivore distribution was done in seven districts of western Maharashtra namely Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, and Kolhapur. This was carried out by interviewing Forest Department staff as key informants to record the presence or absence of all three carnivores within their administrative unit. Interviews were carried out from January to July 2015 to complete sampling in 305 sites across the study area. Interviews of respondents (forest department staff) who have had a direct sighting (dead/alive) of the respective species, in the past year, were only considered. The information so collected was then analyzed using an occupancy model framework to examine the patterns of carnivore distribution.

The presence of hyena was recorded in 179 sites, wolf in 161 sites, and leopard in 150 sites. Across the study area spanning 89,000km², it is important to notice that only 2.6% of the area is currently protected. All three carnivores studied, had a high chance of coexisting in 25% of the study site, which also supported human densities as high as 1,169 people/km². Even though in previous studies it was observed that the leopard has adapted to living in the urban landscape in certain regions, in this landscape all three large carnivores have shown a preference for areas with low human presence.

In areas with low or no availability of natural prey, these species are mostly dependent on domestic animals and livestock for their survival. The study showed an interesting association between the presence of hyenas and domestic dogs which suggests the possibility that the hyenas are dependent on waste which attracts dogs. In terms of agricultural land use preference, areas under cultivation throughout the year were preferred by leopards in contrast to wolves, which preferred seasonally cropped areas. Hyenas didn’t show a preference for any particular agricultural land use but avoided dry lands with low vegetation. Such knowledge can be very useful in predicting changes in habitat preference among these three carnivore species, in scenarios where there is habitat change due to government-aided rapid urbanization and conversion for commercial purposes.

With this, the researchers call for the inclusion of such semi-arid areas while conservation and management planning. They also emphasize the importance of involving social, cultural, and political factors while formulating new management strategies, rather than following old and unproductive methods for the continued existence of such shared spaces in the future. The current study emphasizes the dynamic relationship between people and predators in these shared spaces. But there are many aspects of these relations such as the effect of changes in land use, lifestyles of people, and the effect of livestock predation on community tolerance which are yet to be explored.

 

You can access the original article here. 

To read the Kannada version of this article, please click here.

 

Keywords: carnivores, human-modified landscape, hyena, India, leopard, wolf, shared spaces, semi-arid area