The Wolf Intelligencer

STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE. ОСТАНОВИТЕ ВОЙНУ В УКРАИНЕ.

India – इंडिया

SOUTHEAST / EAST ASIA

Wolves in protected areas of India
Hemis High Altitude National Park (India)
हेमिस हाई अल्टीट्यूड नेशनल पार्क (भारत)
Gya-Miru Wildlife Sanctuary

Kanha Tiger Reserve / Kanha-Kisli National Park

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)
Indian Wolf (Canis Indica)
Iranian/Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes)
Himalayan Wolf (Canis lupus himalayensis)
खतरनाक भेड़िया

Population Statistics [4,400 – 7,100? Approximate 2013
जनसंख्या के आँकड़े

Legal Status; Legally protected.
कानूनी दर्जा; प्रवर्तन के बिना सुरक्षित

Resources
साधन
Wildlife Institute of India (WII)
भारतीय वन्यजीव संस्थान
ENVIS Centre on Wildlife & Protected Areas:
Wildlife | Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India
Wildllfe Institute of India
Securing Livelihoods in the Himalayas | UNDP in India

Organizations
संगठनों
Conservation India
India | UK Wolf Conservation Trust
महाराष्ट्र के भेड़ियों/ Grasslands – Dhangars – Wolves of Maharashtra (Maharashtra.India)
Bombay Natural History Society
Wild Canids India Project
Wildlife Trust of India

News Resources & Publications
खबर संसाधनों और प्रकाशनों
Down to Earth.org (New Delhi, India)

LATEST INDIAN NEWS
सबसे हाल ही में खबर

Wolf and Wildlife News from India

Journal Articles

Identifying unknown Indian wolves by their distinctive howls: its potential as a non-invasive survey method. Scientific Reports. 2021 Mar

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have posited the use of acoustics-based surveys to monitor population size and estimate their density. However, decreasing the bias in population estimations, such as by using Capture–Mark–Recapture, requires the identification of individuals using supervised classification methods, especially for sparsely populated species like the wolf which may otherwise be counted repeatedly. The cryptic behaviour of Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) poses serious challenges to survey efforts, and thus, there is no reliable estimate of their population despite a prominent role in the ecosystem. Like other wolves, Indian wolves produce howls that can be detected over distances of more than 6 km, making them ideal candidates for acoustic surveys. Here, we explore the use of a supervised classifier to identify unknown individuals. We trained a supervised Agglomerative Nesting hierarchical clustering (AGNES) model using 49 howls from five Indian wolves and achieved 98% individual identification accuracy. We tested our model’s predictive power using 20 novel howls from a further four individuals (test dataset) and resulted in 75% accuracy in classifying howls to individuals. The model can reduce bias in population estimations using Capture-Mark-Recapture and track individual wolves non-invasively by their howls. This has potential for studies of wolves’ territory use, pack composition, and reproductive behaviour. Our method can potentially be adapted for other species with individually distinctive vocalisations, representing an advanced tool for individual-level monitoring.

Traditional Usage of Wild Fauna among the Local Inhabitants of Ladakh, Trans-Himalayan Region. Haq SM, Calixto ES, Yaqoob U, Ahmed R, Mahmoud AH, Bussmann RW, Mohammed OB, Ahmad K, Abbasi AM. Animals. 2020 Dec

ABSTRACT

Zootherapy is accepted all around the globe not only in ancient cultures but different animal derived medicines are also part of the practice in the modern health care systems. The present study assessed the traditional ethnozoological usage of wild animals by local inhabitants in Ladakh region, India, and the reference data for scientific approaches for protection of faunal diversity in trans-Himalayas. The ethnozoological documentation of the animals in Ladakh was carried out through semistructured and close-ended questionnaire surveys and interviews. Multivariate ecological community analysis was used to elucidate the relationship between ethnozoological usage and animal species. Our results showed three animal usage clusters with 32% similarity. Moreover, the similarity in animal usage between digging tools, trophy, handle of tools, decoration, and matting, showed less than 32% of similarity. The highest priority of local people was for food followed by decoration and medicinal usage. The most frequently used animal parts were meat followed by fur and horn. Medicinal uses of 48% of the reported species, i.e., Alectoris chukar (chukar), Cuon alpinus (Asiatic wild dog), Lepus oiostolus (hares), Marmota himalayana (marmots), Ovis aries vignei (Ladakh urial), Pantholops hodgsonii (Tibetan antelope), Procapra picticaudata (Tibetan gazelle), Pseudois nayaur (blue sheep), Tetraogallus himalayensis (Himalayan snow), Tetraogallus tibetanus (Tibetan snow cock), and Lutra lutra (common otter) were reported for the first time from this region. Our study provides innovative information regarding the ethnozoological knowledge in the Ladakh region and reference data for policymakers, researchers, land managers, common public, and the other stakeholders to develop logical and scientific approaches for sustainable use of faunal diversity in hotspot regions like trans-Himalayas and other similar biodiversity-rich sites.

Understanding people’s responses toward predators in the Indian Himalaya. Bhatia S, Suryawanshi K, Redpath SM, Mishra C.Animal Conservation. 2020 Sep

ABSTRACT

Research on human–wildlife interactions has largely focused on the magnitude of wildlife‐caused damage, and the patterns and correlates of human attitudes and behaviors. We assessed the role of five pathways through which various correlates potentially influence human responses toward wild animals, namely, value orientation, social interactions (i.e. social cohesion and support), dependence on resources such as agriculture and livestock, risk perception and nature of interaction with the wild animal. We specifically evaluated their influence on people’s responses toward two large carnivores, the snow leopard Panthera uncia and the wolf Canis lupus in an agropastoral landscape in the Indian Trans‐Himalaya. We found that the nature of the interaction (location, impact and length of time since an encounter or depredation event), and risk perception (cognitive and affective evaluation of the threat posed by the animal) had a significant influence on attitudes and behaviors toward the snow leopard. For wolves, risk perception and social interactions (the relationship of people with local institutions and inter‐community dynamics) were significant. Our findings underscore the importance of interventions that reduce people’s threat perceptions from carnivores, improve their connection with nature and strengthen the conservation capacity of local institutions especially in the context of wolves.

Patterns of Livestock Depredation and Large Carnivore Conservation Implications in the Indian Trans-Himalaya. Maheshwari A, Sathyakumar S. Journal of Arid Environments. 2020 Nov

ABSTRACT

Livestock is one of the major sources of livelihood for the agro-pastoral communities in central and south Asia. Livestock depredation by large carnivores is a wide-ranging issue that leads to economic losses and a deviance from co-existence. We investigated the grass root factors causing livestock depredation in Kargil, Ladakh and tested the findings of diet analysis in validating reported livestock depredation. Globally vulnerable snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and more common wolf (Canis lupus) were the two main wild predators. A total of 1113 heads of livestock were reportedly killed by wolf (43.6%) followed by unknown predators (31.4%) and snow leopard (21.5%) in the study site from 2009 to 2012, which comes to 2.8% annual livestock losses. Scat analysis also revealed a significant amount of livestock in the diet of snow leopard (47%) and wolf (51%). Poor livestock husbandry practices and traditional livestock corrals were found to be the major drivers contributing in the livestock depredation. Based on the research findings, we worked with the local communities to sensitize them about wildlife conservation and extended limited support for predator proof livestock corrals at a small scale. Eventually it helped in reducing conflict level and conserving the globally threatened carnivores. We conclude that a participatory approach has been successful to generate an example in reducing large carnivore-human conflict in the west Himalaya.

Land‐sharing potential of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes of western India. Majgaonkar I, Vaidyanathan S, Srivathsa A, Shivakumar S, Limaye S, Athreya V. Conservation Science and Practice. 2019 May

ABSTRACT

AbstractThe current protected area (PA) network is not sufficient to ensure long-term persistence of wide-ranging carnivore populations. Within India, this is particularly the case for species that inhabit non forested areas since PAs disproportionately over-represent forested ecosystems. With growing consideration of human-use landscapes as potential habitats for adaptable large carnivores, India provides a model for studying them in densely populated landscapes, where there is little understanding about human-carnivore interactions in shared spaces. Using key informant interviews and an occupancy modeling framework, we assessed the distribution of three large carnivore species, the leopard Panthera pardus, Indian grey Wolf Canis lupus pallipes, and striped hyena Hyaena hyaena, across a~89,000 km2semiarid multi use landscape in western India, and quantified ecological drivers of their presence. The three species occupied 57% (leopard), 64%(wolf), and 75% (hyena) of the landscape of which only 2.6% area is protected as national parks or wildlife sanctuaries. The presence of the three carnivores was differentially favored by certain types of agriculture, while populations of domestic livestock supported them in this landscape with low densities of large wild prey.Our results demonstrate the adaptability of large carnivores in human-modified landscapes, and we call for an expansion of the current conservation narratives that currently focus on forested PAs, to include the high potential that anthropogenic landscapes offer as habitats where people and predators can co-adapt and persist.

Indian Grey Wolf: first photographic record of Canis lupus pallipes from Papikonda National Park in northern Eastern Ghats, India. Shankar A, Salaria N, Balaji K, Shameer TT. ZOO’S PRINT. 2019 Apr

Identifying suitable habitat and corridors for Indian Grey Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in Chotta Nagpur Plateau and Lower Gangetic Planes: A species with differential management needs. Sharma LK, Mukherjee T, Saren PC, Chandra K. PloS one. 2019 Apr

Examining human–carnivore interactions using a socio-ecological framework: sympatric wild canids in India as a case study.  Srivathsa A, Puri M, Karanth KK, Patel I, Kumar NS. Royal Society Open Science. 2019 May

Status Survey of Indian Grey Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in West Bengal and some part of Jharkhand. Saren PC, Basu D, Mukherjee T.  Saren PC, Basu D, Mukherjee T. Status Records of the Zoological Survey of India. 2019 Jun

Local community neutralizes traditional wolf traps and builds a stupa
A Ghoshal, K Sonam, S Namgail, KR Suryawanshi… – Oryx, 2018

The Relationship Between Religion and Attitudes Toward Large Carnivores in Northern India?; Saloni Bhatia, Stephen Mark Redpath, Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi Charudutt Mishra; Article (PDF Available)  in Human Dimensions of Wildlife · August 2016

Adaptive Management of India’s Wildlife Sanctuaries. Robbins P, Chhangani AK. Spatial Diversity and Dynamics in Resources and Urban Development. 2015:

Multiscale Factors Affecting Human Attitudes toward Snow Leopards and Wolves;
KULBHUSHANSINGH R. SURYAWANSHI, SALONI BHATIA, YASH VEER BHATNAGAR, STEPHEN REDPATH, CHARUDUTT MISHRA; Article (PDF Available)  in Conservation Biology 28(6) · July 2014

Factors contributing to a striking shift in human–wildlife dynamics in Hemis National Park, India: 22 years of reported snow leopard depredation
PS Jamwal, J Takpa, MH Parsons – Oryx, 2018

[PDF] ASSESSMENT OF BIODIVERSITY IN RESERVE FOREST NEAR KUMBHALGARH FORT
A Arya

People, predators and perceptions: Patterns of livestock depredation by snow leopards and wolves; Kulbhushansingh R. Suryawanshi; Yash Veer Bhatnagar, Stephen Redpath, Charudutt Mishra; Article (PDF Available)  in Journal of Applied Ecology 50(3) · March 2013

Ancient wolf lineages in India
DK Sharma, JE Maldonado… – … of the Royal …, 2004

People, trees and antelopes in the Indian desert. Sankhala KS, Jackson P. Culture and conservation: the human dimension in environmental planning. Croom Helm, London. 1985

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