Home range and movement pattern dynamics of wolves in semi-wild landscape in Deccan Plateau, Maharashtra, India
Student name: Ms Shreya Dasgupta
Guide: Dr Prateek Sharma
Year of completion: 2010
Host Organisation: Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Bilal Habib
Abstract: The Indian wolf, the top predator in most of its habitat, mostly survives outside protected
areas, in human dominated landscapes. Since animals move in response to landscape
structure, the rapid change in the landscape structure due to urbanization would have a
bearing on the habitat use and movement of the wolves. The dwindling wolf populations
often come in direct conflict with humans, often resulting in persecution. Therefore, it
becomes important to keep track of changes in its home range, daily movements and its
adaptability to the rapid land use change, in order to manage and conserve this species.
This study uses three models, Minimum Convex Polygon, Kernel density, and Local Convex
Hull, to estimate the home range of two packs of wolves and shows that the home range
estimates differ significantly depending on the model used, and also vary with respect to the
seasons. The core areas determined using the models were strategically located, providing
the wolves with protective cover, and an easy access to domestic livestock. The difference in
the number of core areas within the home ranges of each pack also resulted in different
daily movement patterns, and village-visit frequencies among the two packs. The wolves
seem to move at night and rest during the day, therefore minimizing interaction with
humans. The study also showed that the wolves have a strong preference for the protected
areas and grazing lands during movement, and an avoidance of agricultural lands. The
movement parameters also seemed to reveal the behaviour of the wolves in the habitats to
some extent. The study concludes that it would be more efficient to have smaller well spaced
out resting sites/potential habitat patches to cover the entire home range of the wolves
rather than trying to protect a single large one.
Keywords: Home range, Daily movement pattern, Canis lupus pallipes, Village visit
frequency, Fragmentation.
