Identifying Regions for Conservation of Sloth Bears Through Occupancy Modelling in North-Eastern Karnataka, India
Identifying regions for conservation of sloth bears through occupancy modelling in north-eastern Karnataka, India Sayantan Das1, Saurav Dutta2, Sharmi Sen3, Jijumon A. S.2, S. Babu4, Honnavalli Nagraj Kumara4, and Mewa Singh1,5,6 1Biopsychology Laboratory and Institution of Excellence, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570006, Karnataka, India 2Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Kolkata, Mohanpur Campus, Post: BCKV Main Office, Mohanpur, Nadia-741252, West Bengal, India 3Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Mohali, Knowledge City, Sector 81, SAS Nagar, Manauli-140306, Punjab, India 4Sa´lim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty, Coimbatore-641108, Tamil Nadu, India 5Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Abstract: In the absence of information on species in decline with contracting ranges, management should emphasize remaining populations and protection of their habitats. Threatened by anthropogenic pressure including habitat degradation and loss, sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) in India have become limited in range, habitat, and population size. We identified ecological and anthropogenic determinants of occurrence within an occupancy framework to evaluate habitat suitability of non-protected regions (with sloth bears) in northeastern Karnataka, India. We employed a systematic sampling methodology to yield presence–absence data to examine a priori hypotheses of determinants that affected occupancy. These covariates
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