Every hill has its leopard: patterns of space use by leopards (Panthera pardus) in a mixed use landscape in India

Abstract

Understanding abundance and distribution of species is often necessary for wildlife conservation. However, elusive species such as the leopard (Panthera pardus) that have wide geographical distribution and typically low abundance pose a constant challenge to conservationists due to logistical and methodological constraints. Although leopard abundance has been estimated at the scale of protected areas or other smaller regions, reliable information describing leopard distribution over large spatial scales remains largely unavailable. Knowledge about space use by leopards within landscapes could help improve conservation management, reduce human-wildlife conflict, and also facilitate population status monitoring. We carried out occupancy surveys across c. 24,000 km2 in southern India in a landscape that consisted a mosaic of leopards’ natural habitats and highly human-dominated areas. We investigated the effects of key ecological and anthropogenic variables in determining leopard space use patterns. We addressed imperfect detections obtained using sign surveys conducted on spatially replicated transects within sampling units by modeling detection as a function of spatial auto-correlation and covariates. Our results show that the probability of site-use by leopards across the landscape varied between 0.02 (95% CI [0.01–0.09]) and 0.99 (95% CI [0.99–1.0]) across the study area. The best model (AIC weight = 0.97) showed that the probability of leopard space use was affected by the proportion of natural habitats and the presence of large wild prey in the sampling unit. Given that India is undergoing rapid modifications due to economic changes and demand for natural resources, we emphasize the need for landscape-based approach for conserving and monitoring leopards. We argue that leopards are an indicator of functional ecosystems represented by scrub, deciduous forest and rocky outcrops that do not always get prioritized for conservation, unlike densely forested habitats. Similarly, conservation of natural large wild prey, especially outside the protected area system, should assume greater importance, which could also have a positive impact on reducing human-leopard conflict.

Factors influencing survival of tiger and leopard in the high-altitude ecosystem of the Nilgiris, India

“…According to them, herbivores like the gaur, wild pig, sambar deer, barking deer, and porcupine are very common in the tea estates. Sheep and buffalo rearing are common practices, and the reports of the livestock picking is comparatively less than from other landscapes (Singh et al 2013;Athreya et al 2015;Gubbi et al 2020;Puri et al 2020). When plenty of resources are available in the forest, the big cats, especially tiger, never venture in human habituations (Karanth et al 2004;Wang and Macdonald 2009;Odden et al 2010;Bhattarai and Kindlmann 2018).…”

“…They prefer open grasslands, logged areas, and bordered areas as their primary habitats, whereas leopards are highly malleable and rely on human-modified landscapes such as croplands, tea estates, and agricultural plantations for movement, and the tiger avoidance varies depending on prey density (Johnsingh 1983;Bailey 1993;Linkie et al 2003;Odden et al 2010;Athreya et al 2013;Bhattacharjee and Parthasarathy 2013;Navya et al 2014;Odden et al 2014;Sidhu et al 2015;Kshettry et al 2017). Studies demonstrated that when the tiger dominates in an ecosystem, the major co-predator (leopard) occupies the fringe and attempts to predate on livestock (Singh et al 2013;Athreya et al 2015;Gubbi et al 2020;Puri et al 2020). The co-existence of tiger and leopard is also influenced by landscape variability and human intervention (Gompper and Vanak 2008;Ripple et al 2014;Karanth et al 2017;Kshettry et al 2017;Kafley et al 2019;Thapa et al 2021).…”

Leopard Panthera pardus camera trap surveys in the arid environments of northern Namibia

“…For developing conservation strategies and a metapopulation management plan for the species, it is critical to obtain leopard numbers and population trends. It is also crucial to identify hotspots of densities across a country with a range of different human perceptions towards this predator and various land management schemes (Farhadinia et al 2019;Gubbi et al 2020).…”

Leopard (Panthera pardus) occupancy in the Chure range of Nepal

“…Among the mammalian carnivores, the less efficient competitors avoid the specialized competitors through spatial segregation by establishing the home range outside of the specialized competitors (Atwood & Gese, 2010;Grassel et al, 2015;Gubbi et al, 2020;Thapa et al, 2021;Thornton et al, 2004).…”

“…The leopard habitat outside protected areas is rapidly declining, and within Pas, they face exploitative and interference competition with the socially dominant large carnivores such as tigers ( Panthera tigris ) and lions ( Panthera leo ) in most of their distribution range (Barber‐Meyer et al., 2013 ; McDougal, 1988 ; Miller et al., 2018 ; Miquelle et al., 2005 ; Seidensticker, 1976 ; Seidensticker et al., 1990 ). Among the mammalian carnivores, the less efficient competitors avoid the specialized competitors through spatial segregation by establishing the home range outside of the specialized competitors (Atwood & Gese, 2010 ; Grassel et al., 2015 ; Gubbi et al., 2020 ; Thapa et al., 2021 ; Thornton et al., 2004 ).…”