Abi Tamim Vanak

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment | ATREE · Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation

In human-populated landscapes worldwide, domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the most abundant terrestrial carnivore. Although dogs have been used for the protection of livestock from wild carnivores, they have also been implicated as predators of livestock. We used a combination of methods (field surveys, interview surveys, and data from se...

Most ecosystems have multiple predator species that not only compete for shared prey, but also pose direct threats to each other. These intraguild interactions are key drivers of carnivore community structure, with ecosystem-wide cascading effects. Yet, behavioral mechanisms for coexistence of multiple carnivore species remain poorly understood. Th...

This chapter examines the interaction of dogs with other predators. It studies the competitive dynamic existing between dogs and other carnivores. It also assesses the implications of these reactions to the conservation of native carnivore species.

The vegetation dynamics of the savanna ecosystem are driven by complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, and thus are expected to exhibit emergent properties of biocomplexity. We explore the relative importance of static and dynamic drivers in explaining the patterns of mortality of large trees in the Kruger National Park, South Afri...

Spatial patterns of and competition for resources by territorial carnivores are typically explained by two hypotheses: 1) the territorial defence hypothesis and 2) the searching efficiency hypothesis. According to the territorial defence hypothesis, when food resources are abundant, carnivore densities will be high and home ranges small. In additio...

For large herbivores living in highly dynamic environments, maintaining range fidelity has the potential to facilitate the exploitation of predictable resources while minimising energy expenditure. We evaluate this expectation by examining how the seasonal range fidelity of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Kruger National Park, South A...

The field of animal movement ecology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few decades with the advent of sophisticated technology, advanced analytical tools, and multiple frameworks and paradigms to address key ecological problems. Unlike the longer history and faster growth of the field in North America, Europe, and Africa, movement ecolog...

Development and spread of AMR from various sources such as hospitals, pharmaceutical industries, animal farms and human habitations is not well understood. We conducted a pilot study to assess the prevalence of AMR by taking a case of rapidly developing catchment in Western India. For this, we selected four sub-catchments/regions with a dominant so...

Non‐forested open natural ecosystems (ONEs) support high biodiversity as well as livelihoods of millions of pastoralists, but are highly threatened due to land conversion. To improve the recognition of their value, we generated a high‐resolution (30 m) map of ONEs in the low elevation arid and semi‐arid regions of India. Indian subcontinent. Open n...

Species that respond to ecosystem change in a timely, measurable, and interpretable way can be used as sentinels of global change. Contrary to a pervasive view, we suggest that, among Carnivora, small carnivores are more appropriate sentinels than large carnivores. This reasoning is built around six key points: that, compared to large carnivores, s...

Deeply embedded in local social, cultural, and religious settings, traditional healing is part of dog bite and rabies management in many rabies endemic countries. Faith healing, which usually encompasses a more holistic approach to health including physical, mental and social dimensions, is rare in the context of rabies. In Gujarat, Western India,...

Dogs, as reservoir hosts, have been implicated in the decline of carnivore populations across the globe. We conducted a serosurvey of free-ranging dog populations to assess the population level exposure rates to three viral pathogens, canine parvovirus (CPV), canine distemper virus (CDV) and canine adenovirus (CAV) in a Trans-Himalayan Landscape in...

We report five canine rabies virus genome sequences from India that were obtained from brain samples using Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing. The sequences will facilitate understanding of the evolution and transmission of rabies.

Encroachment by woody invasive plants is a major threat to grasslands and savannah ecosystems worldwide. Rodents, being primary consumers, are likely to be the first to respond to changes in the structure and composition of native vegetation. We examined the effect of an invasive shrub Prosopis juliflora (hereafter Prosopis) on the native rodent co...

There is increased global and national attention on the need for effective strategies to control zoonotic diseases. Quick, effective action is, however, hampered by poor evidence-bases and limited coordination between stakeholders from relevant sectors such as public and animal health, wildlife and forestry sectors at different scales, who may not...

Vaccination is the practical solution for the prevention of rabies in dogs. Assessment of the immunogenicity of vaccination includes estimation of specific rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (VNA) in the target species. We undertook a study to estimate the levels of VNA in free-roaming dogs with a history of rabies vaccination in Bengaluru city,...

Robust and widely implementable OneHealth surveillance systems are required to detect and control the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases. Using technological tools coupled with a rapid field response and rapid diagnostics can help in surveillance of deadly diseases such as rabies, even in densely populated urban areas. Here, we describe the use...

Supporting information for Deshpande et al 2022 (Oikos)

Old world fruit bats are important seed dispersers of forest plants as well as of commercial fruit crops. Bats scatter seeds across landscapes and also aggregate (clump) seeds under feeding and roosting trees. In agroforestry landscapes, bat frugivory and seed dispersal can result in simultaneous accrual of socio-economic benefits and costs to huma...

Across the developing world, humans and free-ranging domestic dogs share common spaces. The relationship between these dogs and humans can range from one of dependence, to apathy, to conflict. Given the high number of humans attacked by dogs every year in India, and the lack of an effective population control strategy, we seek to provide insights i...

Fire and elephant herbivory are major drivers of large tree mortality in savanna ecosystems. Although the spatial variation of these agents is well studied, less attention has been paid to how disturbance history influences tree mortality over time. In a long‐term cohort study, we examined how the sequence of fire‐ and elephant‐induced damage influ...

Free-ranging domestic dogs Canis familiaris threaten wildlife species through predation, hybridization, competition for resources, and by contributing to the transmission of pathogens. The impacts of predation may be problematic, but in many regions the interactions of free-ranging dogs and wildlife are poorly studied. To determine the extent of th...

Space‐use patterns of animals are a fundamental measure of resource requirements and constraints. In some human‐modified landscapes, especially agroecosystems that depend on both rainfall and irrigation, drivers that influence animal space use can show unexpected spatial and temporal patterns due to anthropogenic activities. Animals living in such...

Background There is a strong policy impetus for the One Health cross-sectoral approach to address the complex challenge of zoonotic diseases, particularly in low/lower middle income countries (LMICs). Yet the implementation of this approach in LMIC contexts such as India has proven challenging, due partly to the relatively limited practical guidanc...

Home range size is a fundamental measure of animal space use, providing insight into habitat quality, animal density, and social organization. Human impacts are increasingly affecting wildlife, especially among wide-ranging species that encounter anthropogenic disturbance. Leopards (Panthera pardus) provide a useful model for studying this relation...

Zoonoses disproportionately affect tropical communities and are associated with human modification and use of ecosystems. Effective management is hampered by poor ecological understanding of disease transmission and often focuses on human vaccination or treatment. Better ecological understanding of multi-vector and multi-host transmission, social a...

Encroachment by woody invasive plants has been recognized as a major driver of structural change in grasslands ecosystems. The impact of invasive plant-mediated changes on mammalian species from higher trophic levels is relatively less understood. This study aims to understand the impact of woody encroachment on the ecology of a relatively understu...

Fourth issue of EPW Review of Environment and Development on the theme of biodiversity focused development pathways consists of five papers and one introduction.

Highly populated tropical countries face tremendous pressures in reconciling the needs for improved economic security and the protection of declining biodiversity. India is no exception and its biodiversity is under severe pressure due to complex interactions among land use change, other human economic activities, and climate change. Preservation a...

Highly populated tropical countries face tremendous pressures in reconciling the needs for improved economic security and the protection of declining biodiversity. India is no exception and its biodiversity is under severe pressure due to complex interactions among land use change, other human economic activities, and climate change. Preservation a...

Abstract Free-ranging domestic dogs (FRD) are not only vectors of zoonoses of public health concern, but also pose direct threats to humans, livestock, and endangered wildlife. Many developing countries have struggled to control FRD, despite using both lethal and non-lethal methods. India has amongst the highest FRD populations globally and the hig...

Background: The World Health Organization recommends annual mass rabies vaccination of at least 70% of the dog population in a region to control and eventually eliminate canine rabies. India bears the highest burden of rabies-related human deaths. Yet, few studies have explored free-roaming and owned dog population characteristics in the context of...

India bears the highest burden of global dog-mediated human rabies deaths. Despite this, rabies is not notifiable in India and continues to be underprioritised in public health discussions. This review examines the historical treatment of rabies in British India, a disease which has received relatively less attention in the literature on Indian med...

Scientists all over the world are moving toward building database systems based on the One Health concept to prevent and manage outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. An appreciation of the process of discovery with incomplete information and a recognition of the role of observations gathered painstakingly by scientists in the field shows that simple data...

Health Heatmap of India is an open data platform built for bringing together data from diverse sources and facilitating visualization, analysis, and insight building from such data. In this paper, we describe the context and need for such an open data platform and describe the technical aspects of building it. The beta site of the portal is availab...

India bears the highest burden of global dog-mediated human rabies deaths. Despite this, rabies is not notifiable in India, and continues to be underprioritized in public health discussions. This review examines the historical treatment of rabies in British India, a disease which has received relatively less attention in the literature on Indian me...

Health Heatmap of India is an open data platform built for bringing together data from diverse sources and facilitating visualization, analysis, and insight building from such data. In this paper, we describe the context and need for such an open data platform and describe the technical aspects of building it. The beta site of the portal is availab...

Across the developing world, humans and free-ranging domestic dogs share common spaces. The relationship between these dogs and humans can range from one of dependence, to apathy, to conflict. Given the high number of humans attacked by dogs every year in India, and the lack of an effective population control strategy, we seek to provide insights i...

Background Zoonotic diseases disproportionately affect poor tropical communities. Transmission dynamics of zoonoses are complex, involving communities of vector and animal hosts, with human behaviour and ecosystem use altering exposure to infected vectors and hosts. This complexity means that efforts to manage and prevent human spillover are often...

Accurately quantifying species’ area requirements is a prerequisite for effective area‐based conservation. This typically involves collecting tracking data on species of interest and then conducting home‐range analyses. Problematically, autocorrelation in tracking data can result in space needs being severely underestimated. Based on previous work,...

Zoonotic diseases affect resource-poor tropical communities disproportionately, and are linked to human use and modification of ecosystems. Disentangling the socio-ecological mechanisms by which ecosystem change precipitates impacts of pathogens is critical for predicting disease risk and designing effective intervention strategies. Despite the glo...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An understanding of the core demographic characteristics of the sub-populations of FRD is essential to effectively implement both rabies control interventions through mass vaccination of FRD, and dog population control programmes. This study compares the data obtained following photographic sight-resight surveys in rural (Shirsuphal village in west...

Supplementary information for Carricondo-Sanchez et al. 2019. Scale-dependent strategies for coexistence of mesocarnivores in human-dominated landscapes.

Identifying factors influencing the distribution of and interactions within carnivore communities is important for understanding how they are affected by human activities. Species differ in their ability to adapt to humans depending on their degree of specialization in habitat use and feeding habits. This results in asymmetric changes in the ecolog...

Achieving coexistence between large carnivores and humans in human‐dominated landscapes (HDLs) is a key challenge for societies globally. This challenge cannot be adequately met with the current sectoral approaches to HDL governance and an academic community largely dominated by disciplinary sectors. Academia (universities and other research instit...

A cost-effective estimation of the number of free-roaming dogs is an essential prerequisite for the control of rabies in countries where the disease is endemic, as vaccination of at least 70% of the population is recommended to effectively control the disease. Although estimating the population size through sight-resight based maximum likelihood me...

Satellite telemetry is an increasingly utilized technology in wildlife research, and current devices can track individual animal movements at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. However, as we enter the golden age of satellite telemetry, we need an in-depth understanding of the main technological, species-specific and environmental fact...

R-code for boosted beta regression (Fix acquisition rate). (R)

Covariate partial effects on the variability of the fix acquisition rate. (PDF)

Tagged individuals per species. (PDF)

Covariate partial effects on the variability of the Overall fix success rate. (PDF)

Trends in observed data. (PDF)

Global dataset for boosted beta regressions. (CSV)

Description of data fields in S1 Data. (CSV)

Satellite telemetry articles published. (PDF)

Distribution of response variables and covariates. (PDF)

Unit purchase and operation costs. (PDF)

R-code for boosted beta regression (Overall fix success rate). (R)

Standardized data collection questionnaire. (PDF)