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Introduction
Publications
Publications (95)
Background
Interaction through movement can be used as a marker to understand and model interspecific and intraspecific species dynamics, and the collective behavior of animals sharing the same space. This research leverages the time-geography framework, commonly used in human movement research, to explore the dynamic patterns of interaction betwee...
Understanding the competition and coexistence of flagship carnivores is key to creating strategies for their conservation in the face of global carnivore declines. Although studies exploring the dynamics and competition between tigers (Panthera tigris) and leopards (P. pardus) span decades, there is a lack of understanding regarding the factors tha...
The continuation of the isolated Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) population living on the China-Russia border is facing serious challenges due to factors such as its small size (including 38 individuals) and canine distemper virus (CDV). To assess options to reduce the impact of these negative factors, we use a population viability analysis (P...
The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a critically endangered top predator that struggles on the brink of extinction due to threats such as canine distemper virus (CDV), habitat loss, and inbreeding depression. Here we develop a viability analysis metamodel that combines a traditional individual-based demographic model with an epidemiolo...
Habitat for tigers and many carnivores is fragmented and degraded to an extent that the existing land base supporting discrete tiger populations is often inadequate to maintain viable populations. Using fine-scale location data of dispersing tigers, we studied their exploratory movements in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), where the last...
This paper uses movement as a marker to study interactions in humans and animals to better understand their collective behaviors. Interaction is an important driving force in social and ecological systems. It can also play a significant role in the transmission of infectious diseases and viruses as witnessed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Al...
ContextLivestock grazing is one of the most widespread types of anthropogenic land use, even occurs in many protected areas and has become a threat to wildlife worldwide. Understanding livestock-wildlife interactions is crucial for rare large carnivores conservation. In China, free-ranging cattle within forests degrade the habitat of the tigers (Pa...
Tiger populations are declining globally, and depletion of major ungulate prey is an important contributing factor. To better understand factors affecting prey distribution in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), we conducted sign surveys for gaur (Bos gaurus), banteng (Bos javanicus), and sambar (Rusa unicolor) along 3,517 1-km transects an...
No previous field investigations have been conducted on the diet of golden jackals (Canis aureus L.) in SouthEast Asia. The object of this study was to understand the role of canids in food webs in the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in west-central Thailand where the diet of this species is not influenced by anthropogenic food sources. We studi...
Diet studies of the large Indian civet (Viverra zibetha) are limited in Asia. The diet composition of this species is important to study because in many parts of its range the V. zibetha is still common; yet in other areas, it is declining rapidly due to hunting for meat. This study analyzed 124 scats collected at civet latrines in Huai Kha Khaeng...
The primary prey of tigers across much of South‐East Asia has been depleted, reducing the ability of already limited habitat to support tigers. To better understand the extent to which two of the largest prey species, gaur (Bos gaurus) and banteng (Bos javanicus), contribute to the tiger's diet, we estimated the average size of these species killed...
Despite their extensive distribution globally, recent reports indicate leopards are declining, especially in Southeast Asia. To support conservation efforts we analyzed the behavioral interactions between leopards ( Panthera pardus ), their prey, and tigers to determine if leopards fine-tune their activity to maximize contact with four prey species...
The endangered Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica is confined primarily to a narrow area along the border with Russia in northeast China. Little is known about the foraging strategies of this small subpopulation in Hunchun Nature Reserve on the Chinese side of the border; at this location, the prey base and land use patterns are distinctly differen...
Context
Understanding how large carnivore guilds survive in human-dominated landscapes is key to inform strategies for their conservation in the face of global carnivore declines. Amur tigers and leopards are recovering across the China-Russia border. However, knowledge is limited about competitive interactions between two large cats in Northeast A...
The endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is confined primarily to a narrow area along the border with Russia in Northeast China. Little is known about the foraging strategies of this small subpopulation in Hunchun Nature Reserve on the Chinese side of the border; at this location, the prey base and land use patterns are distinctly differ...
Understanding wildlife-livestock interactions is crucial for the design and management of protected areas that aim to conserve large mammal communities undergoing conflicts with humans worldwide. An example of the need to quantify the strength and direction of species interactions is the conservation of big cats in newly established protected areas...
No other species attracts more international resources, public attention, and protracted controversies over its intraspecific taxonomy than the tiger (Panthera tigris) [1, 2]. Today, fewer than 4,000 free-ranging tigers survive, covering only 7% of their historical range, and debates persist over whether they comprise six, five, or two subspecies [...
Interference competition by tigers, Panthera tigris, is widely reported to reduce leopard, Panthera pardus, density or cause its shift to more a marginal habitat. In Southeast Asia, lack of a medium sized prey, spotted deer (Axis axis), and increased consumption of sambar (Rusa unicolor) by leopards amplifies dietary overlap between these two large...
Sporadic sightings of the endangered Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica along the China-Russia border during the late 1990s sparked efforts to expand this subspecies distribution and abundance by restoring potentially suitable habitats in the Changbai Mountains. To guide science-based recovery efforts and provide a baseline for future monitoring of...
Understanding how wide-ranging animals use landscapes in which human use is highly heterogeneous is important for determining patterns of human–wildlife conflict and designing mitigation strategies. Here, we show how biological sign surveys in forested components of a human-dominated landscape can be combined with human interviews in agricultural p...
We analyzed characteristics of the problem-causing tigers in Chitwan National Park (Nepal) to determine if specific groups or individuals in the source population have higher probability to get involved in conflicts with humans. From 2007 to 2016 we identified a total of 22 such tigers including 13 that killed humans, six serial livestock killers a...
The future of the critically endangered Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is at a crucial point, and effective conservation strategies implemented within its primary historical range in Northeast China may determine the fate of this species. However, when a conservation plan was first developed for the species, scarce information on the leo...
Despite significant knowledge of tiger ecology, information on hunting behavior is limited because tigers hunt in habitats where they are difficult to observe. From May 2013 to June 2015, we visited kill sites of eight female radio-collared tigers (Panthera tigris) to identify prey species of this species in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thai...
Computational Movement Analysis focuses on the characterization of the trajectory of individuals across space and time. Various analytic techniques, including but not limited to random walks, brownian motion models, and step selection functions have been used for modeling movement. These fall under the rubric of signal models which are divided into...
Context
The Amur tiger and leopard, once roaming over the Eurasian continent, are now endangered and confined to the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Russia—a landscape that has been increasingly fragmented due to human activities. The ultimate fate of these big cats depends on whether they can resettle in their previous main historical range in NE China. R...
Long-distance dispersal of an Amur tiger indicates potential to restore the North-east China/Russian Tiger Landscape - Volume 49 Issue 4 - Tianming Wang, Limin Feng, Pu Mou, Jianping Ge, Cheng Li, James L.D. Smith
The number and size of tiger populations continue to decline owing to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and poaching of tigers and their prey. As a result, tiger populations have become small and highly structured. Current populations have been isolated since the early 1970s or for approximately seven generations. The objective of this study is t...
Tigers Panthera tigris are highly threatened and continue to decline across their entire range. Actions to restore and conserve populations need to be based on science but, in South-east Asia, information on ecology and behaviour of tigers is lacking. This study reports the relationship between the home range size of female tigers and prey abundanc...
Prey density is declining throughout the tiger's (Panthera tigris) range and knowledge of the ecological factors that affect prey distribution and abundance remains surprisingly limited for this globally endangered species. In this study, we examined the ecological variables infl uencing the abundance of sambar (Rusa unicolor), the dominant prey sp...
The dynamic geological and climatological history of Southeast Asia has spawned a complex array of ecosystems and 12 of the 37 cat species, making it the most felid-rich region in the world. To examine evolutionary histories of these poorly-known faunas, we compared phylogeography of six species (leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, fishing cat P....
Limited information exists on the population status of wild Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris cobetti) in China. This research reports the first field survey on the Indochinese tiger and its prey base in southern Yunnan of China. Pugmark identification was used to estimate the population size of tigers during the survey in Shangyong Nature Reserv...
Human-killing by tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Bangladesh Sundarbans may lead to negative attitudes and retribution killings by local communities, which in turn may have a substantial impact on the long-term viability of the tiger population. The objectives of this paper were therefore to (1) assess the scale and historical trend of tiger attacks...
Recent genetic analysis has shown that the extinct Caspian Tiger (P. t. virgata) and the living Amur Tigers (P. t. altaica) of the Russian Far East are actually taxonomically synonymous and that Caspian and Amur groups historically formed a single population, only becoming separated within the last 200 years by human agency. A major conservation im...
Attempts to conserve declining tiger Panthera tigris populations and distributions have experienced limited success. The poaching of tiger prey is a key threat to tiger persistence; a clear understanding of tiger diet is a prerequisite to conserve dwindling populations. We used unpublished data on tiger diet in combination with two previously publi...
Studies of forced resettlement during the creation and maintenance of national parks
and protected areas have found negative socioeconomic consequences for human
well-being. We investigated residents’ social and economic well-being following a
citizen-initiated resettlement program in Padampur, Nepal. We found a difference
between voluntary and for...
Ursids have adapted to environments ranging from the tropics to the arctic, and although the family is noted for its omnivory, some species have specialized food habits. The sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) has specialized on insect prey, particularly termites and ants, and exhibits some characteristics and behaviors that are common among myrmecophago...
Basic information required to conserve wild tigers Panthera tigris is lacking for the Bangladesh Sundarbans. The objectives of this study were therefore to estimate tiger home range size and obtain information on movement. Two adult female tigers were captured in the south-east of the Sundarbans and fitted with global positioning system collars. Me...
The rapidly changing field of molecular genetics, particularly advances in genome sequence analyses, has provided new tools to reconstruct what defines a tiger and its origins. The evolutionary history framing the tiger into the exquisite predator has ancestral roots and history are depicted in its phylogeography, the genetic patterns of diversific...
In 2004, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation issued Thailand’s first official tiger action plan. In the years since then, Thailand has increased tiger conservation efforts and has undertaken more rigorous enforcement, monitoring, and research efforts—especially at the tiger source site in Western Thailand. These effor...
Since the early 2000s snow leopards Panthera uncia have re-colonized the southern
slopes of Mt. Everest after several decades of extirpation. Are they now beginning
to disperse to the adjoining valleys that may serve as habitat corridors linking the
Everest region to other protected areas in Nepal? We conducted a cursory survey
in autumn 2009 in Ro...
Definition of source sites.
(0.08 MB DOC)
Estimating financial costs for effective protection and monitoring at source sites, and present expenditures.
(0.06 MB DOC)
Source sites listed by country.
(0.07 MB XLS)
Human-carnivore conflict is manifested in the death of humans, livestock, and carnivores. The resulting negative local attitudes and retribution killings imperil the future of many endangered carnivores. We tailored existing management tools to create a framework to facilitate the selection of actions to alleviate human-carnivore conflict and appli...
The story of tiger conservation in Nepal is a narrative with many twists and turns. Insights from this account are more important to understanding the persistence of tigers than the details of rigorous scientific analysis of a single aspect of tiger population dynamics or ecology. Key components of tiger conservation clearly include knowledge of th...
Understanding the role of natural die-offs or severe population declines is of significant importance to the management and conservation of large mammal popula-tions. A die-off of bongo and other large ungulates occurred following a Stomoxys biting fly out-break in the lowland forest of the northern Republic of Congo in April–May 1997. Direct obser...
Livestock grazing restrictions are a common practice in the protected areas of developing countries. Understanding the influence of these restrictions on livestock husbandry is critical because local people's livelihoods often depend on access to grazing lands and biodiversity conservation may be affected by grazing activities. Household surveys an...
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are endangered wild felids whose elusive nature and naturally low densities make them notoriously difficult to count. We present 7 years of camera trapping, tracking, and observational data on a local tiger population in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, to quantify changes in abundance of demographic groups and to identify und...
Local citizens recruited and trained as bagh heralu ("tiger watchers") helped us to collect information on the distribution of tiger throughout the Tarai of Nepal. While the ultimate goal of the bagh heralu program was to map the current metapopulation of tigers in Nepal and to determine extent of breeding outside protected areas, the bagh heralu a...
Human-killing is the ultimate expression of human–tiger conflict. It is a complex issue that needs to be addressed to maintain support for tiger (Panthera tigris) conservation in areas where human-killing is prevalent. This research was undertaken to investigate the ecological and sociological aspects of human-killing in the central lowlands of Nep...
Leopards (Panthera pardus) are endangered in South East Asia yet little is known about which resources need to be secured for their long-term conservation or what numbers of this species this region can support. This study uses radio telemetry to investigate seasonal variation in habitat selection and home range size of Leopards in Huai Kha Khaeng...
Baseline data on distribution and abundance of tigers in the Sundarbans is required to identify problem areas and evaluate management strategies. This paper outlines a khal (creek) bank survey of track set frequency throughout the Bangladesh Sundarbans to aid formulation of a management-driven monitoring program. Three teams of two observers survey...
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are disappearing rapidly from the wild, from over 100,000 in the 1900s to as few as 3000. Javan (P.t. sondaica), Bali (P.t. balica), and Caspian (P.t. virgata) subspecies are extinct, whereas the South China tiger (P.t. amoyensis) persists only in zoos. By contrast, captive tigers are flourishing, with 15,000-20,000 individ...
Despite being targeted as a conservation flagship species for several decades, the tiger (Panthera tigris) grows ever more imperiled. Debate exists as to where tiger conservation should focus: on protected nature reserves or larger landscapes. We developed a landscape scale, density-based model to assess whether reasonably effective management of c...
The complex relationship between residents and protected areas continues to be an obstacle to successful conservation of protected areas. One of the key components of this relationship is local residents’ perceptions of protected areas. This study explores key issues in the relationship between residents and Royal Bardia National Park in western Ne...
Y chromosome haplotyping based on microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has proved to be a powerful tool for population genetic studies of humans. However, the promise of the approach is hampered in the majority of nonhuman mammals by the lack of Y-specific polymorphic markers. We were able to identify new male-specific polymor...
Of eight traditionally classified subspecies of the tiger Panthera tigris three have recently gone extinct and poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation continue to threaten its survival. China historically harbors four of the existing subspecies and thus has high conservation priority, yet their status, both in the wild and captivity, remains highl...
Bayesian Population Structure Analysis of 111 Tigers
Data obtained from microsatellite genotype and mitochondrial haplotype data were analyzed using STRUCTURE (Pritchard et al. 2000). Simulations were set at 50,000 burn-in period followed by 106 replicates. Each individual is represented by a thin vertical bar, which is partitioned into K colored s...
Bayesian Clustering Analyses for Tiger Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Data
(59 KB DOC).
Phylogenetic Relationships among the Individual Tigers from Composite Microsatellite Genotypes of 30 Loci
Branches of the same color represent tiger individuals of the same classically named subspecies. NJ tree constructed based on kinship coefficient (Dkf) with the (1 – kf) option in MICROSAT (Minch et al. 1995). Numbers are individual Pti codes (...
Eight traditional subspecies of tiger (Panthera tigris),of which three recently became extinct, are commonly recognized on the basis of geographic isolation and morphological characteristics. To investigate the species' evolutionary history and to establish objective methods for subspecies recognition, voucher specimens of blood, skin, hair, and/or...