IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Jathanna, D. | |
| Ecology and Conservation of Small Carnivores in the Western Ghats | |
| 2016 Full Book | |
In spite of the important ecological roles they play in forests, small carnivores have received little research or conservation attention in south Asia, and remain poorly understood. The Western Ghats support a rich array of small carnivores, but much of the available information on these species comes from anecdotal reports based on chance encounters, and is largely limited to occurrence records and some natural history observations. My doctoral research attempted to address this critical knowledge gap, using a combination of field study and analytical approaches to investigate aspects of small carnivore ecology relevant to assessing their conservation status and identifying key threats. Specific objectives included generating information on species occurrence and status, understanding drivers of species' basic biology and ecology (ranging, movements, diel activity, species associations) and to investigate the role of ecological and anthropogenic factors in determining species' habitat use. The diversity of the types of information I sought to generate was mirrored by the diversity of methodological approaches I employed. I used large-scale secondary information surveys to generate information on species' occurrences, status, natural history and current pressures. These surveys mainly focussed on forest-edge and forest-interior communities who, by virtue of living and working adjacent to and in forests, regularly observe wildlife, including species poorly known to science. I discuss limitations of such information, and the consequences to inferences that can (or cannot) be drawn. I also used a very large camera trap dataset collected across much of the central Western Ghats, to investigate ecological and anthropogenic determinants of habitat use by nine small carnivore species, using an approach that accounts for potentially confounding observation processes. Using the same data, I investigated spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal associations between species. A preliminary radio-telemetry study of the endemic brown mongoose, although limited in terms of number of individuals radio-tracked and duration of tracking, provided the first-ever glimpses into ranging behaviour and movement patterns in this poorly-known species. Finally, I review our current understanding of small carnivore ecology and conservation and recommend key areas for future research attention. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |