Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[Pckts]

(09-08-2018, 04:40 PM)Rishi Wrote: This is interesting...

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Huge wild dog population cited as reason for tigers avoiding Kawal Tiger Reserve

©Dinesh Kumble.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Surplus tigers from around Toshiba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra might be avoiding Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), spread over four northern most districts in Telangana, due to the ecological imbalance caused by a huge population of Indian wild dogs, also known as dholes!

The number of wild dogs, has increased from 30 in 2014 and 249 currently in KTR's Jannaram Forest Division alone, as per the preliminary estimates of the 2018 wildlife census.

Jannaram Division in Mancherial district has an area of about 270 km² of the total 890 km² of KTR and is central to any tiger movement from TATR or Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal district, also of Maharashtra.
The last a tiger was seen in KTR was in 2015 and presumably the population of wild dogs experienced a quantum jump around the same time. While these co- predators of tigers exist in packs of 10 or 12 individuals, bigger packs consist of even 40 of them and such packs deter tigers from inhabiting the place, according to Jannaram Forest Divisional Officer K. Ravinder.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/fig13_275649466

*This image is copyright of its original author

"We know for sure that tigers are coming here in August but are perhaps returning in October-November. Tigers do not like to stay at places where the number of dholes is huge, gaining the potential to kill the big cat," the Forest official opined.
"Such a situation exists even in Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra," revealed Sarosh Lodhi, a well known conservationist and wildlife photographer from Nagpur. "Tigers are eluding the sanctuary since the population of wild dogs has gone up or it could even be vice versa," he opined while underscoring the need for a deeper study into the phenomenon at KTR.

"The population of leopards in Jannaram divsion has also gone up from 4 in 2014 to 20 this year besides that of herbivores going up from a cumulative of 500 to about 2,600," Mr. Ravinder quoted statistics. He apparently wanted to drive home the point that the herbivore prey base, comprising of gaur (increased from 29 to about 60), spotted deer (from 200 to about 800), nilgai (200 to about 700), sambhar (from 50 to about 200), black buck (from 10 to about 70) and chausingha (from 25 to about 70), has become conducive in quantum for a good tiger population to survive here.

The Jannaram Forest official claims that the herbivore population in his Division has gone up despite the presence of large number of wild dogs thanks to 'smart' management of the facility as well as that of grass lands.

"We have developed grass lands or fodder plots in about 450 hectare, restricted movement of cattle to allotted pastures besides daily monitoring activities of known criminals," he disclosed of the activities contending that all hope of a tiger arriving in KTR was not lost yet.

I would bet the reason Dhole are able to thrive is because of the lack of Tiger presence, it's just like Lions to Wild Dogs IMO. Wild dogs don't thrive when Lion numbers are high and I assume it's the same relationship for Dhole to Tigers. Dhole can harass Tigers but they certainly aren't a real threat to any adults, I know of a few claims but I have seen no real evidence that would say otherwise while I have seen quite a bit of evidence supporting the Tiger eradicating Dhole. Reply