Influence of Ranging and Hierarchy on the Habitat Use Pattern by Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in the Tropical Forests of Southern India

Baskaran, Nagarajan; Kanakasabai, R.; Desai, Ajay A.

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6605-4_17

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Therefore, we also assumed that any conflict-caused elephant in or around the village area was moved in from the nearest forest patch. Subsequently, we spatially simulated and shifted 2,613 conflict events into the nearest forest patch using the “create random points” tool in ArcMap, and the shift distance opted randomly between 5–10 km selected based on home range and daily movement of Asian elephants ( Fernando et al., 2008 ; Baskaran, Kanakasabai & Desai, 2018 ; Torre et al, 2019 ). The spatial shift of presence events was intended to model the habitat connectivity for elephants in Odisha rather than spatial trends of conflict.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the elephant trails: habitat suitability and connectivity for Asian elephants in eastern Indian landscape

Palei,

Jangid,

Hanumant

et al. 2024

PeerJ

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Identifying suitable habitats and conserving corridors are crucial to the long-term conservation of large and conflict-prone animals. Being a flagship species, survival of Asian elephants is threatened by human-induced mortality and habitat modification. We aimed to assess the habitat suitability and connectivity of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 habitat in the state of Odisha in eastern India. We followed the ensemble of spatial prediction models using species presence data and five environmental variables. We used least-cost path and circuit theory approaches to identify the spatial connectivity between core habitats for Asian elephants. The results revealed that normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; variable importance 42%) and terrain ruggedness (19%) are the most influential variables for predicting habitat suitability of species within the study area. Our habitat suitability map estimated 14.6% of Odisha’s geographical area (c. 22,442 km2) as highly suitable and 13.3% (c. 20,464 km2) as moderate highly suitable. We identified 58 potential linkages to maintain the habitat connectivity across study area. Furthermore, we identified pinch points, bottlenecks, and high centrality links between core habitats. Our study offers management implications for long-term landscape conservation for Asian elephants in Odisha and highlights priority zones that can help maintain spatial links between elephant habitats.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the elephant trails: habitat suitability and connectivity for Asian elephants in eastern Indian landscape

Palei,

Jangid,

Hanumant

et al. 2024

PeerJ

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“…In this instance, translocation is a difficult choice because it is expensive and increases the risk of mortality of the target animal (Fernando et al 2012). Moreover, elephants have home ranges (Baskaran et al 2018a), are highly social (De Silva & Wittemyer 2012), and prefer certain habitats (Baskaran et al 2018b). Furthermore, mature adult male elephants translocated out of their original protected area tend to return to their home range, often hundreds of kilometers away, whereas young adult elephants tend to wander or settle in their new home (Fernando et al 2012).…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife managers ignore previous knowledge at great risk: the case of Rivaldo, the iconic wild Asian Elephant Elephas maximus L. of the Sigur Region, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India

Puyravaud¹,

Davidar²

2021

J. Threat. Taxa

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Management of wildlife depends mostly on scientific data; ignoring this can lead to unintended consequences. We take the case study of the wild male Asian Elephant Rivaldo of the Sigur Region, who was translocated out of his range. Rivaldo returned to his home range within a few days, which could have been expected if scientific publications had been consulted. We suggest that a simple checklist of relevant publications can help park managers to decide on a proper management procedure. We also used a simple Bayesian framework to visually show how the probability of predicting a management outcome is increased by prior knowledge. The expensive and risky effort to relocate the elephant could have been avoided altogether if prior knowledge had been taken into consideration.

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“…Elephant ranging and distribution is often influenced by ecological factors, such as habitat types and vegetation [7, 8], and seasonal fluctuations in resource quality and quantity [9, 10]. In addition to this, behavioural factors also determine elephant ranges, in accordance to social dynamics [11, 12]. The anthropocene and its associated facets are additional aspects influencing elephant distribution, habitat-use and ranging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elephants in a teacup: Ranging and Habitat-use of Asian elephantsElephas maximusin a Plantation Dominated Landscape in Southern Western Ghats, India

Vijayakrishnan,

Raghunathan,

Ananda Kumar

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Ranging patterns of four focal herds using a plantation-forest matrix of the Valparai plateau was studied by following the individuals on a regular basis, recording all possible sightings, for five years. Although surrounded by a network of protected areas, the focal herds were found to use the plateau extensively. There was minimal spatial overlap observed between the four herds, except between two, PTH and MON, which showed a fairly large overlap of 130 sq.km. The observed ranges of elephants were smaller (119.71 ± 24.11 sq.km) compared to previous studies on the species in India, but were comparable with those from Sri Lanka. Possible risk avoidance strategy is observed in their use of the landscape, as evidenced by the use of high intensity human activity areas mostly during night than day. Compared to previous studies from the same landscape, there is also an observed increase in the use of natural vegetation (in the form of rainforest fragments) than the plantation and monoculture habitats, indicating the importance of forest remnants for elephants on the plateau. The observations indicate importance of anthropogenic areas outside protected areas as potential habitats and, not just as movement pathways or as temporary refugia. Conservation planning should therefore consider such areas while initiating landscape-level management strategies for the species. The study also highlights the importance of longitudinal observation-based studies in ascertaining ranging, in the absence of logistically challenging techniques such as radio telemetry.

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Influence of Ranging and Hierarchy on the Habitat Use Pattern by Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) in the Tropical Forests of Southern India

Cited by 6 publications

References 31 publications

On the elephant trails: habitat suitability and connectivity for Asian elephants in eastern Indian landscape

On the elephant trails: habitat suitability and connectivity for Asian elephants in eastern Indian landscape

Wildlife managers ignore previous knowledge at great risk: the case of Rivaldo, the iconic wild Asian Elephant Elephas maximus L. of the Sigur Region, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India

Elephants in a teacup: Ranging and Habitat-use of Asian elephantsElephas maximusin a Plantation Dominated Landscape in Southern Western Ghats, India

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