Rivals or companions?: wolf and hyena share the same bowl in south western Bengal

The Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena recognized to be rival species are displaying tolerant behaviour in the direction of one another, in phrases of the patches they occupy to utilise the livestock useful resource as prey in semi-arid areas of West Bengal, a latest research by scientists of Zoological Survey of India and the West Bengal Forest Department has identified.

The particulars of the research have been printed in a paper titled, ‘Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena sharing from the same bowl: High niche overlap between top predators in a human-dominated landscape’ printed in worldwide science journal Global Ecology and Conservation.

“We found that both the species, which are generally known rivals showing tolerance towards each other, which is a strong evidence of land sharing among the species in the landscape. We also found significant level of biological connectivity between the overlapping suitable habitat patches of both the species,” mentioned Dr. Lalit Kumar Sharma, lead writer and head of the wildlife part of ZSI.

The researchers divided the panorama in grids and used digital camera traps in addition to DNA evaluation of scats to file the presence of each the species. The GPS (world positioning system) coordinates of all the 262 presence data corresponding to direct sightings and oblique proof (digital camera entice photos, scat) of each the species have been recorded. Of the whole presence data, 189 observations have been discovered confirmed for wolf combining each 72 direct and 117 oblique observations. In case of hyena there have been 73 data, 27 direct commentary and 46 oblique. The researchers performed interviews of about 1,356 respondents on species presence and additionally to doc carnivore-human battle case.

“Our model also brought out that much of the species suitable habitat lies within the human-modified lands. Moreover, the highest level of biological connectivity resides between Purulia and Bankura district, indicating the species use a human-dominated landscape for movement among suitable habitat patches. Further presence of a high level of niche overlap and occurrence of biological corridors in the anthropogenic landscape can be attributed to poor wild prey availability, increasing human colonization and mining activities in study region,” the paper mentioned.

Debal Roy, chief mission director, West Bengal Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Project, mentioned the research was conceptualised 4 years in the past when he together with colleagues got here throughout the presence of those animals in the wild and didn’t know a lot about their habitat utilisation connectivity and gene circulation between the populations. Mr. Roy, who can be one among the authors of the research, mentioned that primarily based on the final result of the research the State forest division will take up efficient administration of each species.

Along with the area of interest overlap of the two species, the publication additionally offers an concept of the hall evaluation of each. The most organic connectivity for hyena might exist between the giant habitat patch distributed in western Purulia. Patches of the southern space of Bankura Marginal connectivity can also exist amongst the smaller patches current on the northern aspect of Bankura-Purulia. In case of the Grey Wolf, organic connectivity might exist in habitat patches distributed in the western a part of Purulia with the southern area of Bankura, which continues as much as Jhargram district.

The researchers mentioned they haven’t encountered any instances of cooperative looking between the two species however added the risk can’t be dominated out and really useful extra intensive camera-trapping research and radio telemetry-based research in the research panorama to raised perceive panorama utilisation and the feeding behaviour of each species.

The paper that has been authored by 12 consultants — together with Mukesh Thakur, Tanoy Mukherjee, Bheem Dutt Joshi, and Kailash Chandra, former director of ZSI — revealed that many appropriate habitats for each species will not be protected and beneath excessive anthropogenic strain. The rising involvement of those two giant carnivores in the human-dominated panorama is a big menace to their long-term viability. In addition to rising human-wildlife battle, unlawful looking by the native tribal communities throughout the Shikar competition might end result in the extirpation of those two species in the panorama.

“Hence, it is imperative to adopt best practices pertinent to wildlife conservation into the working plans of these identified areas. We recommend that the suitable patches and corridors identified in the study may be prioritized for conservation and management,” Dr. Sharma mentioned.