Effects of human footprint on movement of large carnivores
As human activities increase, the collateral loss of habitat and
biodiversity is accompanied by a change in movement of animals through
fragmented landscapes (Tucker et al., 2018). Landscape structure affects
movement parameters because different cover types in the landscape offer
different levels of risk and benefit. It is important to study the
movement of animals through these landscapes. Land use types across home
ranges of large carnivore species were not significantly different with
the single exception of wolves which live primarily in grasslands and
human altered landscapes (Fig 3). Historically, wolves adapted to live
in human dominated landscapes as they evolved near humans (Anderson,
2018). However, our results indicate that the wolves move faster in
human dominated landscapes to negotiate human pressures within large
home ranges.
Comparison of land use types within tiger home ranges suggested that
proportion of forest cover was not significantly different whereas
agriculture outside and inside PAs was significantly different
(P forest=0.06;P agriculture=0.03 respectively). It is worth
discussing that home ranges of tigers outside PAs were primarily forest
areas (72.72%).
However, forest outside PAs is fragmented with high human density and
road network which may explain why tigers outside PAs have larger home
ranges. To negotiate this landscape, tigers outside PAs also move at
higher speeds than inside PAs. We examined the proportion of human
population density inside home ranges of the 4 large carnivores in our
study areas. As expected, home range of wolves consisted of relatively
high human density followed by leopard and tigers outside PAs. In our
study area, the leopard is pushed to the fringe areas of the PA due to
high density of larger predator, the tiger. Tigers inside PAs (0.29
human/100 km2) and dholes (0.51 human/100
km2) showed the least proportion of human pressure in
their home ranges signifying they occur in prime forested areas (Fig 4).
Dholes in our study area show higher human population pressure than
tigers in their home range as a strategy to avoid large predators. In
order to avoid competition, dholes established intensive use areas near
PA fringes (Ghaskadbi, P. 2017unpublished data).
Across our study sites, the home range of wolves had the maximum density
of roads (56.6) followed by tigers outside PAs (25.7). The home range of
dholes showed the least density of roads (5.5) (Fig 5). All carnivores
had primary roads passing through their home ranges, but the disturbance
caused by them need not be the same. This is because the roads inside
PAs in our study site was a non-functioning highway with only tourist
activity in limited time windows.