RESULTS
In all 32,691 fixes across 26 individuals of 4 large carnivore species
were analysed. We examined the fundamental movement parameters, impact
of human footprint and configuration of core areas of the animals of the
4 large carnivores across gradient of human disturbance.
Movement parameters of
large carnivores
Inside PA, average hourly displacement of tiger and leopard was 161.74 ±
40.14 m/h and 77.58 ± 2.95 m/h respectively. Whereas, dhole moved of an
average of 266 ± 39.63 m/h. Outside PA, the mean tiger displacement was
234.44 ± 98.79 and wolf moved an average of 665.3 ± 95.61 m/h (Table 3).
Mean hourly displacement for tigers was found to be significantly
different inside (161.74 ± 40.14 m/h) and outside (234.44±98.79) PAs
(P =0.04). Mean hourly displacement also varied significantly
between day (157.99 ± 48.99) and night (215.32 ± 102.11) (P =0.03)
with higher displacement during night across the landscape. Among sexes,
mean displacement per hour of tigers varied with males having larger
displacement (194.43 ± 84.49 m/h) than females (170.88 ± 32.08 m/h).
Moreover, both the sexes showed longer displacement during night than
day. Leopards showed least variation in mean displacement through day
and night (71.06 ±8.08 and 82.22 ±0.58 respectively). One of the social
canids, the dhole which inhabits forested areas showed higher
displacement during daytime (521 ±202.88) as compared to night (393.6
±277.45); whereas the wolves, social canids inhabiting human dominated
landscapes showed higher mean displacement during night (877 ±129.52) as
compared to day (465.3 ±190.39) and significant difference was found
(P =0.03).
Based on NSD, all species across the landscape exhibited a confined
movement pattern indicating territoriality. The tiger outside PA took
141.4 ± 44.77 h to complete one cycle (point of origin- maximum
displacement - point of origin) whereas tiger inside PA (208.4 ± 167.7)
took 32.14% higher time than outside PA. For leopards the time to
complete each cycle was found to be maximum (1258.50 ± 485.59). Dholes
and wolves took similar time to complete one cycle to cover their home
ranges (204.915 ± 83.71 and 229.76 ± 111.6 respectively) (Table 4).
Table 3 Displacement of 4 large carnivores across different
habitat types in India.