Do conservation strategies that increase tiger populations have consequences for other wild carnivores like leopards?

Abstract

Most large carnivore populations are declining across their global range except in some well managed protected areas (PA’s). Investments for conserving charismatic apex carnivores are often justified due to their umbrella effect on biodiversity. We evaluate population trends of two large sympatric carnivores, the tiger and leopard through spatially-explicit-capture-recapture models from camera trap data in Kanha PA, India, from 2011 to 2016. Our results show that the overall density (100 km−2) of tigers ranged between 4.82 ± 0.33 to 5.21 ± 0.55SE and of leopards between 6.63 ± 0.71 to 8.64 ± 0.75SE, with no detectable trends at the PA scale. When evaluated at the catchment scale, Banjar catchment that had higher prey density and higher conservation investments, recorded significant growth of both carnivores. While Halon catchment, that had lower prey and conservation investments, populations of both carnivores remained stable. Sex ratio of both carnivores was female biased. As is typical with large carnivores, movement parameter sigma (an index for range size), was larger for males than for females. However, sigma was surprisingly similar for the same genders in both carnivores. At home-range scale, leopards achieved high densities and positive growth rates in areas that had low, medium or declining tiger density. Our results suggest that umbrella-species conservation value of tigers is likely to be compromised at very high densities and therefore should not be artificially inflated through targeted management.

Long-term monitoring of margays (Leopardus wiedii): Implications for understanding low detection rates

“…Potentially, we could assess population status for these species by making use of the plethora of camera grids already deployed globally for surveying the larger, more easily-sampled terrestrial carnivores (e.g. jaguars ( Panthera onca ): [ 8 ], tigers ( Panthera tigris ) and leopards ( Panthera pardus ): [ 9 ]). Camera traps may be the most efficient method to sample their forays on the forest floor, however can they provide an unbiased representation of population status?…”

A strategic road map for conserving the Endangered dhole Cuon alpinus in India

“…Unfortunately, the tiger‐centric conservation model currently practiced in India may not be optimal for dhole conservation in the long term (e.g. Kumar et al 2019), because it does not account for or address many dhole‐specific threats and issues discussed in this study. India does not have a conservation plan tailored for dholes, nor does the species – to the best of our knowledge – have targeted management actions in any Protected Area’s management plan.…”

Dhole pack size variation: Assessing the effect of Prey availability and Apex predator

“…These remnant habitat patches are also shared by other large carnivores, thereby limiting the dhole population by lethal intraguild interactions (Steinmetz et al, 2013). The small size of PAs and lopsided conservation efforts can further result in over-inflated apex carnivore densities and detrimental for subordinate predators like dholes (Karanth et al, 2010;Kumar et al, 2019;Rayan & Linkie, 2016).…”