Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea

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Temporal Variation in Tiger Population in a Semi-Arid Habitat in India

  • Received : 2021.09.08
  • Accepted : 2022.04.29
  • Published : 2022.08.01
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Abstract

Understanding temporal variations in wildlife populations is a prerequisite for conservation planning of wide-ranging species such as tigers (Panthera tigris). We determined the temporal variation in abundance, population growth, and sex ratios at different age and sex stages for a tiger population in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, India from November 2007 to February 2011 using motion-sensing cameras. We identified 19 male and 21 female tigers from stripe patterns during 16,110 trap nights within an area covering 233 km2. The annual abundance of the population varied from 34.9 (mean)±3.8 (SE) to 23.9±1.5, with a declining trend in the mean annual change of abundance (-12%). The density of adult females remained stable across the study duration, but the densities of adult males and non-breeding tigers fluctuated. The sex ratio was female-biased (0.58 males/female) for breeding tigers and male-biased (1.74 males/female) for non-breeding tigers. Our results reinforce the importance of long-term studies for monitoring the naturally occurring processes in populations to develop population indicators and identify reliable baseline information for conservation and management planning of populations.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We thank the Director and Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India for their continuous support. We thank the Rajasthan Forest Department, Park officials, and field staff at RTR for permissions that facilitated this work. We especially thank our field assistants, M. S. Gurjar and S. Sharma, for the continuous support during field work. The Training, Research and Academic Council (Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India) provided financial support for this work.

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