All about Gaur (Bos gaurus)

[Roflcopters]

Population [top] Population: The global population is estimated to lie within 13,000–30,000 animals. Field data suggest that the proportion of mature individuals in the population is likely to be 0.4–0.6, indicating a total of 5,200–18,000 mature individuals, with no population known to have over 1,000 individuals (S. Hedges pers. comm. 2000). Most population figures given for numbers of Gaur are little more than guesses.

In Bangladesh, Gaur is probably extinct (Md Anwarul Islam in litt. 2008). A few were thought still to occur in the Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sylhet, and Mymensingh areas in the early 1980s (Sarker and Sarker 1984), but none had been seen in Pablakhali Wildlife Sanctuary in the Hill Tracts since the early 1970s (Khan 1985). Choudhury (2002) stated that Gaur individuals from Mizoram and Tripura (India) still cross into Bangladesh, although the records on which this was based were not given.

In Bhutan, Gaur apparently persists all over the southern foot-hill zone, notably in Royal Manas National Park, Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Khaling Wildlife Sanctuary (Choudhury 2002).

In Cambodia, Gaur probably declined by 90% or more in the period from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, at which time it still remained widespread, outside the lower Mekong and Tonle Sap lowlands, although in generally low numbers (Heng Kimchhay et al. 1998; Daltry and Momberg 2000; Timmins and Ou 2001; R. J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008). By far the most substantial Gaur population of the country remained in eastern Cambodia centred on Mondulkiri province, where in the late 1990s potentially several hundred to a thousand may have survived in a forested landscape of over 15,000 km² (Timmins and Ou 2001; Tordoff et al. 2005; R.J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008). Further declines, of about 50%, took place from the early 1990s to the present (R.J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008). As of 2007 the most significant population by far in Cambodia still remained within Mondulkiri Province (R. J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008 based on WCS and WWF unpublished data; T. Clements pers. comm. 2007; T.D. Evans pers. comm. 2007). Protection efforts in part of this landscape have probably stabilised the population there (R. J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008 based on WCS and WWF unpublished data; T. Clements pers. comm. 2007; T.D. Evans pers. comm. 2007). Protection outside these two areas is limited and for Cambodia as a whole the trend is still a significant decrease (R. J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008).

In China, Gaur occurs in Yunnan and southeast Tibet (Ma Yiqing and Wang Yingxiang 1995). All sites in Yunnan (except Yingjiang) formed, until the 1950s–1960s, one large contiguous population, but this is now heavily fragmented. By the 1980s, the species was extinct in Lancang county, and the remaining animals were split into two populations: Xishuangbanna–Simao and Cangyuan (Wang Yingxiang verbally 1998 to Duckworth and Hedges 1998). Some sources suggest that a population of 600–800 existed in Yunnan Province in the mid-1990s, with the majority occurring in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve (Ma Yiqing and Wang Yingxiang 1995); other sources suggest that only small numbers of Gaur remain in Yunnan (along the border with Myanmar) and that hunting had led to the local extinction of Gaur in Xishuangbanna (Xiang and Santiapillai 1993).

In India, three major (Western Ghats, Central India and North-East) and two minor (Bihar and West Bengal) “Gaur conservation areas” have been identified, reflecting the remaining distribution (Sankar et al. 2000; Choudhury 2002). The Western Ghats and their outflanking hills in south India constitute one of the most extensive extant strongholds of Gaur, with good numbers in Wynaad – Nagarahole – Mudumalai – Bandipur complex (Ranjitsinh 1997). Recent distributional assessment surveys in the Karnataka part of the Western Ghats showed the presence of Gaur in more than 60% of the 22,000 km² landscape (K.U. Karanth and N.S. Kumar unpublished data). Ranjitsinh (1997) estimated 12,000–22,000 in India, while Choudhury (2002) suggested that there were about 23,000–34,000 Gaur in India, Bhutan, and Bangladesh; but the true number is simply not known, as shown by the wide ranges. Major populations have been reported in Nagarahole National Park (probably over 2,000), Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (not known; may not be large), Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary (over 800), Melghat Tiger Reserve (perhaps 500), Bandipur National Park (over 2,000), Kanha National Park (probably under 200), Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary (not known; may not be large), Tadoba–Andhari Tiger Reserve (over 1,000), Periyar Tiger Reserve and adjoining forest complex (500–1000), Annamalai range complex (Parambikulum, Valparai, and Grass Hills) (500–700), Silent Valley and adjoining forest complex (500–1000), Agastyamalai forest complex (about 500), Biligirirangangswamy Wildlife Sanctuary and Malemahadeswara Hill range (over 1000), Anshi–Dandeli Tiger Reserve and adjoining forest mosaic (perhaps about 400), Kudremukh National Park and Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary (about 200–400), Brahmagiri–Pushpagiri–Talakaveri Sanctuary, Mukurti National Park, Pench Tiger Reserve, Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary (‘a large population’), Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary (‘a large population’), and Gorumara Wildlife Sanctuary (‘a large population’). Many other areas are known or suspected to hold small populations, but in many sites such small numbers are unlikely to be viable (Choudhury 2002). The foregoing figures were assigned by N.S. Kumar (pers. comm. 2008) and are based on a variety of sources and methods, and from most areas are for guidance only. An increasing rigour is being applied to large mammal population estimation in India and some of the figures here will warrant modification and future changes to the quoted populations should not necessarily be seen as indicating that a real change in numbers has occurred. In recent years Gaur has reportedly been exterminated from three protected areas, Thattekad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala), Bhandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh) and Kanger Valley National Park (Madhya Pradesh) (Pasha et al. 2004). Information on population status from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and North-East is limited (Choudhury 2002); there are demonstrably very few Gaur in Kaziranga (Karanth and Nicholls 2000). Recent population trends appear to have been stable in well protected areas. The following densities have been estimated: Bhadra Tiger Reserve, 1.48 +/- 0.63 (SE) per km² (Jathanna et al. 2003); Pench (Madhya Pradesh) dry deciduous forest, 0.7 animals per km² (Karanth and Nichols 2000); Nagarahole moist deciduous forest, 9.6 animals per km², making it the second-most abundant ungulate there (Karanth and Sunquist 1992); Bandipur dry deciduous forest, 7.0 animals per km² (Karanth and Nichols 2000); Tadoba-Andhari dry deciduous forest, 1.8 animals per km² (Karanth and Kumar 2005); Melghat dry deciduous forest, 1.0 animals per km² (Karanth and Kumar 2005); Pench (Maharashtra) dry deciduous forest, 0.8 animals per km² (Karanth and Kumar 2005). No densities could be estimated, despite the use of suitable survey methodology, at Kanha or Namdapha, implying relatively low populations, and none was found during such surveys at Kaziranga or Ranthambore (Karanth and Nichols 2000); only small numbers persist in Kaziranga (N.S. Kumar pers. comm. 2008). The Bhadra density is low, reflecting poaching (using snares, dogs and shotguns) and livestock grazing. However, the Gaur population there is now steadily increasing with successful conservation interventions (K.U. Karanth and N.S. Kumar unpublished data). A study at Nagarahole National Park compared the fauna of an area which was only moderately hunted with a heavily hunted site: this found respective densities of six and two Gaurs per km² (Madhusudan and Karanth 2002).

In Lao PDR, Byers et al. (1995) stated that the national population was approximately 1,000. This number is perhaps possible (field records exist from many areas), but animals would have been widely dispersed and at very low density in the extensive forest tracts across the country, with perhaps fewer than six sites holding more than 50 animals (Duckworth and Hedges 1998; Duckworth et al. 1999; Steinmetz 2004; R.J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008). A large population of Gaur was found in Nakai–Nam Theun NPA and the adjoining Nakai Plateau in the mid 1990s, when signs were readily found and even the animals themselves seen directly (Duckworth 1998; Duckworth and Hedges 1998; Evans et al. 2000). Resurveys of both areas, although using comparable methodology only on the plateau, indicate massive declines in the subsequent decade, with, for example, fairly intensive camera-trapping not recording the species at all (Dersu 2007; Johnson and Johnston 2007). The last decade has seen major reductions (in general, probably of well over 50%), in many large mammal populations across Lao PDR and it is now likely that many of the populations listed in Duckworth and Hedges (1998) have become locally extinct (Timmins and Robichaud 2005; R.J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008).

In Malaysia, in 1994 the population was stated to be less than 500 individuals and it was thought to be declining (J. Brennan pers. comm. to Read et al. 1994; a number of other stated numbers from around that time, all of the same general order of a few hundred, and none derived allowing a quantification of error margin, are presented in Hedges in prep.), with then confirmed records from various sites, e.g. the Sungai Singgor area of Temenggor Forest Reserve, Hulu Perak (Ratnam et al. 1995). In the subsequent few years, the population collapsed, despite optimism through relatively stronger control of guns in Malaysia than elsewhere on the southeast Asian mainland, and a perception (e.g. Nash 1993) of relatively strict control of wildlife trade in Malaysia. Densities in Taman Negara were crudely estimated from surveys during 1999–2001 as 0, 3 and 22 Gaurs per 100 km² in three study sites (Kawanishi and Sunquist 2004). Although these authors adjudged large mammal poaching to be negligible in Taman Negara, high levels were confirmed there by Wan Shahruddin (1998) and camera-trapping (suitable in methodology and intensity to find Gaur if any significant numbers were present) did not record Gaur at a fourth sector of Taman Negara in 1999 (Lynam et al. 2007). No Gaur was photographed at all in eight other potential Tiger areas surveyed by Lynam et al. (2007) during 1997–1999, including Temenggor (see Ratnam et al. 1995); because these were selected as the areas most likely to support Tigers and as Tiger-oriented camera-trapping elsewhere in South-east Asia usually yields photographs of Gaur, this study proves that only very low numbers of Gaur remain in Malaysia, no doubt way below the estimate in Read et al. (1994). Further supporting this, none was found in the Jerangau Forest Reserve, from which it was suspected to have been eradicated by hunting (Azlan 2006). Gaur was found in only two of 14 sites (seven virgin jungle reserves and seven adjacent logged areas), making it among the most localised mammal species which was detected in a study assessing the importance of virgin jungle reserves. The two occupied sites were a contiguous pair in each management class, and among the biggest sites surveyed (over 100 km²); the virgin jungle reserves themselves rarely exceed 3 km² (Laidlaw 2000). In the 1960s, there were estimated to be approximately 40 Gaur in Krau Wildlife Reserve, a figure deemed optimistic at the time; in the 1980s there were thought to be 22–31; in 1995 the estimate was only seven. When surveying the reserve in 2000 (see DWNP/DANCED 2002), R. Dunlop (pers. comm. 2008) covered the whole reserve (about 440 km²) with camera-traps in 119 one km-grid squares. Out of a total of 6,918 periods of 24-hour trapping, 61 species were recorded in 1,804 photographs of wildlife, yet only one photograph was of a Gaur. In almost 100 days of field searching for signs, Gaur tracks were recorded only on eight days, on each occasion as prints of isolated animals. The photograph, the sole sighting, and the eight track records were all in the south-east lowland area of the reserve, moving between an area of salt-licks and grazing just outside the reserve. This survey corroborated the 1995 estimate of seven animals, and the 2000–2001 figure could be even lower. Sumatran Rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis and Asian Elephant Elephas maximus have both disappeared from Krau, and Gaur may be the next species to go. R. Dunlop (pers. comm. 2008) considers there no reason to expect this recent history not to typify that of Gaur populations at all sites in Malaysia. There are very recent records from: Tanjong Mentong in Taman Negara, where tracks were found during elephant surveys in late 2006 (Nurul Huda, WCS Malaysia pers. comm. 2008); Belum, in 2007, where animals were camera-trapped at salt-licks several times, including a herd of seven (Ahmad Zafir, WWF Malaysia pers. comm. 2008); and Temenggor, where individual animals (no herds) were camera-trapped nine times (never at salt licks, always on logging roads) in 2,364 trap-nights in 25 locations (Mark Darmaraj, WWF Malaysia pers. comm. 2008).

In Myanmar, the status of Gaur is poorly known (J.W. Duckworth and Than Zaw pers. comm. 2006). A March 1994 survey of Taminthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar's largest protected area, guessed that 100–200 Gaur remained, and that they were in danger of being extirpated from the area if current levels of poaching continued (Rabinowitz et al. 1995). A national Tiger survey camera-trapped Gaur in 11 of 15 camera-trapped sites, commonly in several (Lynam 2003); these sites were selected for their chances of holding Tigers, so, because the two species face similar threats, it may present the most positive picture of Gaur occurrence in the country.

In Nepal, the Gaur population was estimated to be 250–350 in the mid-1990s, with the majority in Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve; population trends appeared to be relatively stable (J. Heinen pers. comm. to S. Hedges 1995). A few other areas hold small numbers (Choudhury 2002).

In Thailand, an estimated total of 920 Gaur remained in 1994. Only 6–7 populations were thought to contain 50 or more animals and there were no Gaur outside protected areas. The most important protected areas for Gaur were Khao Yai National Park, Tap Lan National Park and Pang Sida National Park, Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Kaeng Krachan National Park and Mae Nam Phachi Wildlife Sanctuary, the Khlong Nakha complex, and possibly Om Koi and Mae Tuen Wildlife Sanctuaries. Even in protected areas with much suitable habitat Gaur densities were very low, for example in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary the population density was less than 50% of the estimated carrying capacity of the area (Srikosamatara and Suteethorn 1995; S. Hedges pers. comm. 2000). Gaur populations are probably now increasing in several sites in Thailand, notably in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary and Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, with effective tackling of poaching. In Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, sign monitoring in one small area (20 km²) over six years since poaching absolutely ceased indicated an annual population growth rate there of 0.31, although the relative contributions of birth and immigration could not be distinguished. Breeding herds became much more common, compared with the situation 10–15 years previously at the height of poaching (Steinmetz et al. in prep.). In the Khao Paeng Ma reforestation site adjacent to Khao Yai National Park the population apparently expanded from two to 100 Gaur in less than 10 years, initially reflecting recolonization but apparently mostly from reproduction among animals at the site, all within a 10 km² area of secondary forest. The population stabilized at about 100 animals during 2004–2007 (based on counts from hilltops). As the forest grows and browse and grass diminish, reproduction is likely to decline (R. Steinmetz pers. comm. 2008). This herd has flourished only by dint of the provision of 24-hour security (A.J. Lynam pers. comm. 2008). Numbers also seem to be expanding rapidly in Kuiburi National Park in southern Thailand, again from an artificially lowered population and again within a secondary forest area adjacent to semi-evergreen forest. In early 2008, a (temporary) herd of almost 50 animals was spotted by elephant-watchers in a tree hide; only a few years previously, there were probably far fewer than this in the whole area (Steinmetz et al. 2007; R. Steinmetz pers. comm. 2008). By contrast, Gaur is largely gone from southern Thailand forest remnants, although it may be safe on the Malaysian border, reflecting tight control of illegal access and activities by the Border Patrol Police, and the danger of operations because of insurgency (A.J. Lynam pers. comm. 2008).

In Viet Nam, the current status of Gaur is poorly known. Several areas in Dak Lak Province (the Easo and Easup areas and Yok Don National Park) were known to contain Gaur in 1997 (Le Xuan Canh et al. 1997) but very little reliable information was traced for other parts of the country by Duckworth and Hedges (1998). Several herds of Gaur persist in Cat Tien National Park and in adjacent state forest enterprises (Polet and Ling 2004). There seems little room for doubt that the Gaur population is in serious decline, and many of the sites reported in Duckworth and Hedges (1998) may now have lost the species.
Population Trend: Decreasing

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