KOLKATA: A recent study by Zoological Survey of India and the state Forest department has found that the Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena, which are known to be rivals, are showing tolerant behaviour towards each other— in terms of the patches they occupy to utilise the livestock resource as prey— in the human-dominated landscape.
The study indicates a high-level niche overlap of both the species due to poor wild prey availability, increasing human colonisation and mining activities in the study region.
"We observed a high level of fragmentation in suitable patches of Grey Wolf compared to the Striped Hyena. For both the species, connectivity exists among the large patches of western and southern Purulia and Bankura. The Grey Wolf corridors in the Jhargram district were also found connected with other areas," Dr, Lalit Sharma, Lead author and head of ZSI's Wildlife section said.
He added that the study has revealed that much of the species' suitable habitat lies within the human-modified lands. Moreover, the highest-level of biological connectivity lies between Purulia and Bankura district, indicating the species use a human-dominated landscape for movement among suitable habitat patches.
The corridor analysis indicates that maximum biological connectivity for hyenas may exist between the large habitat patch distributed in western Purulia and patches of the southern area of Bankura Marginal connectivity may also exist among the smaller patches present on the northern side of Bankura-Purulia. In case of the Grey Wolf, biological connectivity may exist in habitat patches distributed in the western part of Purulia with the southern region of Bankura, which continues upto Jhargram.
According to the study, the increasing involvement of these two large carnivores in the human-dominated landscape is a significant threat to their long-term viability.
In addition to increasing human-wildlife conflict, the illegal hunting by the local tribal communities during the Shikar festival may result in the extirpation of these two species in the landscape.
"Considering this, it is imperative to adopt best practices pertinent to wildlife conservation into the working plans of these identified areas. The suitable patches and corridors identified in the study may be prioritised for conservation and management," Sharma said.
"We will come up with a management intervention plan for both the species based on this study," Debal Roy, Chief Project Director, West Bengal Biodiversity Project who is also one of the authors of the study said.
The details of the study has been published in a paper titled "Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena sharing from the same bowl: High niche overlap between top predators, in a human dominated landscape" has been published in international science journal Global Ecology and Conservation.