Aarthi Kannan
Indian wolves are the top predator of the grasslands in India, yet they are largely ignored by the government of India in terms of conservation action. While tigers, rhinos, and other iconic species that inhabit federally protected forested landscapes in India have bounced back from the brink of extinction, Indian wolves, Indian striped hyenas, caracals, and other wildlife are silently disappearing because their grassland habitat is often viewed as “waste” land and handed off to industries for urban development. Indian wolves are rapidly declining with increasing anthropogenic pressures shrinking their agropastoral grassland habitat. An official census has not been conducted to estimate the number of Indian wolves left in the country.
Aarthi will estimate the population and density of Indian wolves for the first time in the district of Koppal in Northern Karnataka, India. Aarthi will collect non-invasive DNA (fecal) samples to employ a Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) framework for estimating the population and density of Indian wolves in the selected area. In addition, information about wolf pack demography and genetic relatedness amongst the individuals in the area will be obtained from processing the fecal samples.
This study will be the first attempt at quantitatively estimating the population and density of Indian wolves. It can provide a basis for future population and density estimates of Indian wolves in other parts of India. This study will also help scientists understand the effect of severe anthropogenic pressures on the pack structure, demography, and migration of Indian wolves through data collected at the field site, and genetic information from the fecal samples.