Tharmalingam Ramesh

Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History · Conservation Ecology

Over the past five decades, a large number of wild animals have been individually identified by various observation systems and/or temporary tracking methods, providing unparalleled insights into their lives over both time and space. However, so far there is no comprehensive record of uniquely individually identified animals nor where their data an...

Resource availability, predator-prey interaction, anthropogenic disturbances, climatic and topographic factors often determine the ecological association of a species with its environment. We measured the ecological association of Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), and grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), with predator, habitat, and human disturbance...

Background The impact of changing land-use patterns and associated anthropogenic threats on scale-dependent habitat use of semi-aquatic mustelids in scent-marking and social behaviour can provide important insights into the habitat ecology of smooth-coated otters ( Lutrogale perspicillata ). Methods We sampled 180 stream segments (100–400 m) as sp...

Context Human presence and land-use activities influence habitat use and activity of species. It is crucial to study the ecological and anthropogenic determinants that drive these relationships. Objectives We investigated the effects of land-use change and human presence on the habitat use of seven mammalian species and on their activity patterns....

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species’ population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate ‘intactness scores’: the remaining proportion of...

People are now more frequently affected by the disorders of osteoporosis and osteopenia. Food habits and genetics have been recognized as the main contributing factors; hence earlier disease prediction is necessary for the conditions mentioned above. Osteoporosis and osteopenia generally affect older adults and women who have passed menopause to a...

Aim Interspecific competition plays a key role in shaping carnivore communities. Top-down effects can impact the coexistence of superordinate and subordinate competitors and prey across a shared landscape. Limited resources, their abundance and diminishing habitats can all exacerbate interspecific competition. Sometimes, behavioural mechanisms or a...

Frugivorous carnivores like civets consume fruits of many species and play an important role in their seed dispersal by virtue of depositing their scats farther away from the parent tree. This study was conducted to understand the role of the common palm civet in affecting the seed germination rate of three plant species (i.e. Syzygium cumini, Phoe...

Human population increase and anthropogenic land-use changes are impacting biodiversity globally. Despite an increasing trend in urban wildlife studies, a systematic assessment of mammalian small carnivores in urban areas is still lacking. We evaluated urban studies in international peer-reviewed journals using a systematic review process. We asses...

Glucocorticoid levels (GCs) are an important parameter that infers the pathological condition of an organism. GCs can vary with life history stages like gender, age, and reproductive stage and signify the degree of allostatic load experienced. Deleterious increases in GCs can severely affect the wildlife population by suppressing the reproductive v...

ContextHabitat loss limits the dispersal of wide-ranging large mammals. It is pivotal to study the ecological and anthropogenic factors driving the habitat occupancy of large mammals for their long-term conservation and reduction of negative human–wildlife interactions.Objective To evaluate how the habitat occupancy pattern of the large mammals var...

Resource selection functions (RSFs) are among the most commonly used statistical tools in both basic and applied animal ecology. They are typically parameterized using animal tracking data, and advances in animal tracking technology have led to increasing levels of autocorrelation between locations in such data sets. Because RSFs assume that data a...

The den is a multi-purpose critical space of carnivores and provides a growth conducive refuge which ensures both substances and protection from interspecific predation and harsh climate. Selection of optimal den sites determined by various site-specific factors potentially reduces aversive interspecific interactions and provides cost-effective acc...

The expanding population of wild pig (Sus scrofa) and the associated economic loss has been a challenge for the government and conservation biologists, for over a decade globally. Unlike the majority of other wildlife, rising anthropogenic pressure offered wild pigs a suitable environment to expand their population. Accordingly, the circumstances f...

Fear‐induced generalization of threats to noninimical stimuli is a behavioral tendency of humans to minimize exposure to potential threats. In human–carnivore conflict zones, people often generalize their fear of predation by obligate carnivores to nonobligate carnivores despite differences in species’ predation rates. We investigated the effect of...

Sequential analysis techniques have brought new insights into a primary analysis of medical data for early detection of diseases. The presence of Sequential patterns in the datasets help to develop new drugs, define populations susceptible to certain types of illness and also to identify predictors of many medical related common diseases. At the sa...

Anthropogenic habitat conversion through urban sprawl is driving mesocarnivores to modify their behaviour and ecology. Thorough knowledge of their feeding ecology is fundamental in understanding the pressures imposed on mesocarnivores by urbanisation. The diet of the water mongoose Atilax paludinosus has been studied in natural habitats of KwaZulu-...

Context: The changing land-use patterns surrounding freshwater bodies influences the habitat ecology of semi-aquatic mammals through alterations in stream characteristics and riparian habitat. Conservation of otters in inland freshwaters exposed to high anthropogenic activity requires an understanding of their multi-scale factorial responses for ef...

Background The changing land-use patterns surrounding freshwater bodies influence the habitat ecology of semi-aquatic mammals through alterations in stream characteristics and riparian habitat. We aimed to predict the occupancy and detection probability of smooth-coated otter Lutrogale perspicillata along the Tungabhadra Otter Conservation Reserve...

The global effort to protect megaherbivore populations is largely dependent on how human-wildlife conflict is identified, prioritized, and remedied. We examined the socio-ecological and landscape-scale factors determining spatial patterns of human-megaherbivore (Asian elephant Elephas maximus and gaur Bos gaurus) interactions across sixteen Forest...

Chinkara (Gazella bennetti) is a widespread antelope in the arid and semi-arid regions of Deccan Peninsula, but it is relatively unfathomed in the southern part of its distribution range. We report the first photographic evidence of chinkara from Ballari district of Kar-nataka that comprises six camera-trap records representing six different indivi...

Resource selection functions are among the most commonly used statistical tools in both basic and applied animal ecology. They are typically parameterized using animal tracking data, and advances in animal tracking technology have led to increasing levels of autocorrelation between locations in such data sets. Because resource selection functions a...

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes in human activity via extensive lockdowns worldwide. Large-scale shifts in human activities bestowed both positive and negative impacts on wildlife. Unforeseen reduction in the activities of people allowed wildlife to venture outside of forested areas to exploit newfound habitats a...

Over-generalization of threat to non-inimical stimuli is a known defensive tendency in humans that seeks sustainability by limiting threat exposure. The generalization of fear of predation and resultant predation to non-obligate carnivores evident in human-carnivore conflict zones despite the disparity in the rate of predation. Therefore, we inve...

In the current world millions of people are suffering with bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteopenia. The early detection of osteoporosis and osteopenia disease is very important as it helps people to be cautious and get treated on time. Hence research on early detection of osteoporosis and osteopenia disease has gained importance across th...

Globally, anthropogenic land conversion has resulted in reduced natural land available for free-roaming wildlife, and a shift in species composition. Certain mesocarnivores exhibit an ability to adapt and expand distribution ranges under differing anthropogenic pressures. Our study addressed the socio-ecological attitudes and general perspectives t...

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Urbanisation is rapidly transforming natural landscapes with consequences for biodiversity. Little is documented on the response of African wildlife to urbanisation. We reviewed case studies of vertebrate species’ responses to urbanisation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to determine trends. Connected habitat mosaics of natural and anthropogenic gre...

Urbanisation is rapidly transforming natural habitats with the potential to benefit synanthropic species, especially mesocarnivore species. Knowledge of the spatio-temporal ecology of mongoose species in an urban matrix is limited. Consequently, we examined the home range and habitat use of water mongoose (Atilax paludinosus, n = 14) in an urban ma...

Large scale spatial patterns of livestock predation risk from multiple co-predators are fundamental to applied conservation planning. Here, we examined important ecological, social, and landscape attributes explaining spatial patterns of human-carnivore interactions. We used a systematic grid-based framework, across an area of 14,200 km2 of sixteen...

Intensifying human-wildlife interaction requires effective human-wildlife management strategies. In India, forests designated as Protected Areas (PAs) have better wildlife protection measures unlike Reserved Forests (outside PAs) which are undervalued, although both support similar kinds of wildlife. Wildlife conservation planning and policy-level...

The spatial ecology of the Herpestidae family has remained poorly studied across Africa. The behavioural plasticity and generalist nature of members of the family could be facilitating their expansion in anthropogenically transformed landscapes. Given the current paucity of information on their spatial ecology, knowledge of their spatial movement i...

The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats is a major threat to biodiversity globally. In fragmented landscapes, species are not only affected by patch-level attributes but also by the influence of the whole mosaic of landscape elements surrounding habitat patches. Therefore, it is important to understand the simultaneous effects of local and l...

We estimated the influence of habitat fragmentation characteristics (patch size, isolation and number of neighbouring patches), habitat and land management types at the community level, specifically, on species richness, functional-α (alpha), guild-and β (beta) diversity of forest and dense bush habitat patches in southern KwaZulu-Natal Province, S...

Urbanisation is one of the most rapidly expanding forms of landscape modification by humans and leads to large-scale loss and fragmentation of native habitat. This can alter the structure, composition and function of remnant habitat. Therefore, understanding the influence of both landscape and patch characteristics is important for understanding fa...

We assessed the potential competitive exclusion of southern bushbuck (hereafter bushbuck, Tragela-phus scriptus) by nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), the larger of the two spiral-horned browsing antelopes (members of the Tragelaphine family). It has been suggested that high concentrations of nyala, capable of browsing a greater breadth of food items, ne...

Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely non-discriminato...

Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely non-discriminato...

Nestedness refers to a species distribution pattern whereby species found in species‐poor sites represent a subset of those in species‐rich sites. Nestedness is presumed to be primarily a result of selective extinction of species and thus is important for determining mechanisms of species impoverishment in fragmented landscapes. In this study, we i...

Understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on species’ behaviour is crucial for conservation planning, considering the extent of habitat loss. We investigated the influence of anthropogenic disturbances including agriculture, urbanisation, protected areas, and the presence of novel predators, on the temporal and spatial behaviour of sym...

Aim We investigated habitat heterogeneity and patterns of avian taxonomic and functional diversity change across a decreasing patch‐size gradient in a critically endangered, fragmented forest‐system to elucidate: (1) habitat patch‐size and structural drivers of avian diversity change, (2) potential patch‐size thresholds at which avian diversity and...

Many threatened fish species that utilize riverine habitats are faced with habitat degradation and subsequent deterioration in their ecological surroundings. Habitat degradation is a consequence of water quality parameters associated with anthropogenic activities including mining, industrial, agricultural and urban activities. We examined how the m...

Land-use, the extent of cover, and intra-guild competition with larger predators all influence habitat use by mesocarnivores. Understanding this is especially important for little-known mesocarnivore species. We investigated the occurrence of the relatively understudied honey badger (Mellivora capensis) in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (St. Lucia, Sout...

Context Conservation planning for biodiversity within anthropogenic landscapes is crucial given the rate of habitat conversion and human population growth. Investigating anthropogenic impacts on the persistence of biodiversity is key to management decision-making. Objectives We investigated the influence of protected areas (PAs), agriculture and u...

The Indian Ocean Coastal Belt (IOCB) of South Africa is a natural forest-grassland mosaic, nested within an anthropogenic, mixed land-use matrix. Given the ongoing threat of agricultural expansion and urbanisation, we assessed the value of a buffer habitat (Coastal dense bush) for conserving forest species. We investigated the influence of microhab...

Globally, long-term research is critical to monitor the responses of tropical species to climate and land cover change at the range scale. Citizen science surveys can reveal the long-term persistence of poorly known nomadic tropical birds occupying fragmented forest patches. We applied dynamic occupancy models to 13 years (2002-2014) of citizen sci...

The spotted ground thrush (Zoothera guttata; SGT) is a globally endangered forest specialist whose distribution is poorly understood in the critically endangered Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Forest (IOCBF) biome on the east coast of southern Africa. More than 70% of the IOCBF has been lost to development, resulting in fragmented forest remnants within...

The Indian Ocean Coastal Belt (IOCB) of South Africa is a natural forestgrassland mosaic, nested within an anthropogenic, mixed land-use matrix. Given the ongoing threat of agricultural expansion and urbanisation, we assessed the value of a buffer habitat (Coastal dense bush) for conserving forest species. We investigated the influence of microhabi...

Despite the negative impacts of urbanisation, some species adapt to pressures of habitat loss and fragmentation. Trumpeter Hornbills Bycanistes bucinator are a large avian forest frugivore that uses urban environments in South Africa. Consequently, we used GPS/UHF transmitters to study their home range size, movement and habitat use in an urban–for...

Distributions of avian mutualists are affected by changes in biotic interactions and environmental conditions driven directly/indirectly by human actions. The range contraction of red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) in South Africa is partly a result of the widespread use of acaracides (i.e., mainly cattle dips), toxic to both ticks and...

Identifying the primary causes affecting population densities and distribution of flagship species are necessary in developing sustainable management strategies for large carnivore conservation. We modeled drivers of spatial density of the common leopard (Panthera pardus) using a spatially explicit capture–recapture—Bayesian approach to understand...

Top predators often have cascading effects on mesopredator communities by driving behavioural changes. Using camera-trapping surveys, we explored the site-detection probability of sympatric predators and temporal overlap and examined behavioural patterns to explore hypotheses of carnivore guild interactions between and within large and small predat...

Agricultural expansion has replaced many natural habitats and the landscape structure with potential benefits to certain wildlife species. Some of mesocarnivores widely use man-made habitats in agri-ecosystems that are devoid of large carnivores and often prey on livestock. We examined the space use and habitat relationships of radio-collared carac...

Globally anthropogenic pressures on natural environments have caused species decline. Ground dwelling bird species declined in numbers because of loss of habitat and nesting sites. Protected areas (PAs) are generally perceived as areas with little disturbance; however, many have/are also subjected to anthropogenic land use change, such as agrofores...

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province contains 16% of South Africa’s remaining indigenous forests, including the Endangered Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Forest. Coastal development has resulted in a land-use mosaic including agriculture, forestry and urban landscapes. The effects of changing land use on forest mammals remain largely untested in KZN; thus, dete...

Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) are an abundant mesopredator on farmlands (croplands and rangelands) across South Africa. Given their adaptability in a changing anthropogenic landscape, knowledge of spatial movements can provide important ecological information on the species. We captured, collared and monitored five black-backed jackals in...

Changes in habitat composition and structure along natural agricultural habitat gradient affect spatial ecology of carnivores at both intraspecific and interspecific levels. An important prerequisite for the conservation and management of habitat specialists is a sound understanding of how they use indigenous habitats within fragmented landscapes....