Title
Summary and highlights of small carnivore photo-captures during a field season in the central Western Ghats, India
Author(s)
Devcharan Jathanna; N. Samba Kumar; Ajith Kumar; K. Ullas Karanth
Published
2020
Publisher
Small Carnivore Conservation
Abstract
Camera-traps are very efficient at detecting certain types of cryptic species such as small carnivores and, because many small carnivore species remain poorly understood, such records can substantially advance our understanding of these species’s conservation status, distribution, habitat relationships, diel activity patterns and other aspects of their biology and ecology. However, camera-trap surveys are expensive (in terms of equipment, effort, human power and cost) to conduct at large spatial scales. It is often possible to collate such records from large-scale surveys targeted at other taxa that are more likely to receive funding for conservation monitoring. This paper presents a summary and some notable records from camera-trap surveys, primarily targeted at monitoring of Tiger Panthera tigris and Leopard P. pardus populations, in the Malenad landscape of Karnataka and adjacent areas of Goa and Kerala, part of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. Investing a total trap effort of 20,245 trap-days across 566 camera trap locations during the 2013-14 field season, we obtained 4452 images of small carnivores from 3204 distinct detection events of 11 species. Significant photo-captures include Brown Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni in Nagarahole, Bandipur and Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserves, Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis in Bandipur, and Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus and Nilgiri Marten Martes gwatkinsii in Talakaveri Wildlife Sanctuary.
Keywords
By-catch records; data processing; endemics; landscape-scale
surveys; species occurrence
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