Researchers: Cheetah Reintroduction Plan On India Neglects Spatial Ecology
Guwahati: Researchers have noted that because the introduction of African cheetahs to India was planned without taking into account their spatial ecology, the released animals may come into conflict with locals in nearby villages.
Contiguous ecology examines how geography fundamentally affects how individual species travel and how multispecies communities remain stable.
According to estimates, up to 20 cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa were transferred to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park last year in an effort to create a population that could roam freely. This was the first time since their extinction in India 70 years ago.
According to researchers with the Leibniz-IZW Cheetah Research Project in Namibia, cheetahs live in southern Africa in a stable socio-spatial system with widely dispersed territories and numbers of less than one animal per 100 square kilometres.
Although there is no data to support it, they claimed that the strategy for cheetahs in Kuno National Park anticipates that the high prey density will support high cheetah numbers.
Researchers said in a letter that was published in the journal Conservation Science and Practise on Thursday that because Kuno National Park is so small, it is possible that the released animals will spread out significantly and cause problems with nearby settlements.
Unfenced Kuno National Park is an expanse of wilderness measuring roughly 17 by 44 kilometres.
The prey base in Kuno National Park may support up to 21 adult cheetahs, or around three animals per 100 square kilometres, according to calculations based on the density of the local species.
Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Leibniz-IZW caution against overestimating the carrying capacity of the region based on their findings from a lengthy study of the spatial behaviour of cheetahs in Namibia and related work in East Africa.
Under normal circumstances, cheetahs can typically support 0.2 to 1 adults per 100 square kilometres. They claimed that this held true for both Namibia and the ecologically quite different Serengeti habitat in East Africa, which has a far larger density of prey.
Reportedly, the team predicted how cheetahs will behave in three dimensions in their new home. They discovered contentious concerns and the reintroduction plan’s secret basic assumptions. These presumptions disregard crucial components of the socio-spatial system of cheetahs.
The scientists also discovered that male cheetahs use two distinct spatial strategies. Territories made up of a number of crucial communication hubs are occupied by territory owners.
Furthermore, they indicated that both females and males without territories (referred to as “floaters”) migrate and dwell between existing territories, with sporadic incursions into those territories to gather crucial information at marking locations.
