All about Gaur (Bos gaurus)

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Conservation Actions [top] Conservation Actions: Gaur is listed in CITES Appendix I, and is legally protected in all range states. It occurs in many protected areas, although in north-east India, Myanmar, China, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and Malaysia many such areas retain only tiny populations or have already lost the species.

South and central India have a well established network of wildlife refuges and protection activities, to a large extent, are effective in many of them (Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008). However, conservation-oriented research and interventions on Gaur are limited and seem unlikely to expand much in the short-term, meaning that the species benefits largely through general protection activities (particularly those focused around Tiger and Asian Elephant), while species-specific negative factors or worrying long-term trends are likely to go unmanaged and even unnoticed (Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008). The chief of these seems to be competitive interaction with grazing stock: Gaur densities were the most depressed of all ungulates surveyed by Madhusudan (2004), perhaps reflecting higher niche overlap with domestic cattle than shown by the others (chiefly deer). There is long-term monitoring of some Gaur populations, for instance Mudumalai, Bandipur, Bhadra and Nagarahole (Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008). Rinderpest has reportedly been eradicated from India (Choudhury 2002). Choudhury (2002) listed proposed aspects of protected area expansion and consolidation to slow further fragmentation of Gaur populations in southern and central India.

In some protected areas (recent examples being Bhadra and Kudremukh in Karnataka), formerly forest-dwelling human communities have resettled closer to markets, clinics, school and other services (Karanth and Karanth 2007). This expands habitat available to Gaur (that which was formerly fields and houses) but more significant is the removal of a source of hunters and the cessation of grazing competition with domestic stock (see Karanth et al. 2006). Such conservation interventions have helped recovery of Gaur populations in this region. Increasing development aspirations mean that out migration is likely from further areas, e.g. Mudumalai (Farshid Ahrestani pers. comm. 2008).

As the majority of the Gaur population is in South Asia, conservation activities are important there. It is also important that populations are maintained at least in several areas in Southeast Asia, to maintain Gaur presence through its historical range, to preserve Gaur genetic diversity and through its importance to the ecosystems within which it lives. Given the regional pattern of threats and current successes to date, implementing effective conservation interventions is considerably more challenging, and therefore a higher priority in the Southeast Asian region.

Gaur occurs mainly in protected areas in Southeast Asia, although Cambodia and Myanmar may both have large populations outside them and some may persist is such areas in Lao PDR (Duckworth 1996; Hansel 2004). In most protected areas of Lao PDR, Viet Nam and Cambodia which still retain Gaur, protected status offers little, if any, real protection to the species, exceptions being Cat Tien National Park in Viet Nam, the Srepok Wilderness Area and the Siema Biodiversity Conservation Area in Cambodia; in the latter two Cambodian areas, there are now even signs of population recovery (R.J. Timmins pers. comm. 2008), as there are at Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary and Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand, with effective tackling of poaching (R. Steinmetz pers. comm. 2008). Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary and Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary form part of Thailand’s ‘Western Forest Complex’ which if these recent gains are consolidated will, in the long term, hold the largest functional Gaur population in Thailand and perhaps South-east Asia.

The most important conservation measure for the species in Cambodia is the continued strengthening and support of conservation efforts in Siema Biodiversity Conservation Area and the Srepok Wilderness Area, and to a lesser extent support of protected area conservation management in the northern plains and central Cardamoms. Likewise in Viet Nam, the most important conservation measure is the continued support of protection efforts within Cat Tien National Park, in Thailand it is to continue the consolidation of the ‘Western Forest Complex’ and to continue the high-intensity protection of the rebuilt herd in Khao Paeng Ma reforestation site, adjacent to Khao Yai National Park. In Myanmar the Hukaung Valley is an exceptional area of lowland plains forest, grassland, and wetlands. Part lies within the Wildlife Sanctuary and some of the rest of the outstanding plains habitat is within an enormous proposed extension. Through its size and mostly little-encroached condition, this is the most outstanding remaining landscape-level floodplains habitat for very large mammals remaining in tropical Asia, and although wildlife populations are highly depleted, warrants the strongest effort to conserve it. It faces a number of daunting challenges (J.W. Duckworth pers. comm. 2008). In Lao PDR, any of a large number of areas could become key Gaur conservation sites, but there is as yet no precedent in the country for effective conservation of high-trade-value large mammals. Xe Pian, Nam Et–Phou Louey, and Nakai–Nam Theun NPAs could all be highly significant areas for the species (Duckworth and Hedges 1998; Steinmetz 2004; Johnson et al. 2006) but so could almost any other NPA; the reality is that the most success with Gaur conservation is likely to come through identifying areas with positive underlying situations to achieve conservation, rather than identifying the area with the most intrinsic importance for Gaur as the focus for efforts. Choudhury (2002) listed aspects of protected area expansion and consolidation to slow further fragmentation of Gaur populations in north-east India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and perhaps allow repopulation of Bangladesh.

The most important actions in Malaysia are to determine if any viable population remains in the country and, if so, to implement effective anti-poaching measures and to work at the policy level to allow effective control of large mammal hunting and trading. Under the current circumstances, any site-based activities are likely to require the sort of 24-hour security employed at the reforestation site adjacent to Khao Yai National Park, Thailand, which has allowed a rapid population growth of Gaur. It may also require reintroduction. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks have a breeding population of captive Gaur in enclosures in the Jenderak ranger station (within Krau Wildlife Reserve), for captive release.

A large captive population exists of wild-type Gaur (as well as of Mythun); given the complexity of field conservation of large ungulates, particularly in South-east Asia, it is clearly in resolving issues of hunting, trade, and protected area effectiveness that conservation interventions must focus.
 

 
Source for all the information : http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/2891/0
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