How Do Asiatic Wild Dog, and Tigers Share Resources?

GS Paper III Environment and Ecology

Context:

Overlapping prey availability could dictate a positive association between dholes (Asiatic wild dog) and tigers, facilitating co-existence or even cooperative behaviors between the two species of carnivores, a new study has found.

To assess the relative abundance index, habitat use and factors (space and time) influencing dhole co-existence with other sympatric carnivores in Manas National Park.
The global population of adult dholes is estimated to be between 949 and 2,215 individuals, scattered in localized areas of India and Thailand.
Diurnal activity of the dholes had the highest temporal overlap with leopards and the lowest with clouded leopards.
The dhole or Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus) is the only endangered wild pack-living canid in the tropical Indian forests and is considered at high risk of extinction.
Factors such as habitat loss, declining prey availability, persecution, disease, and interspecific competition have contributed to the ongoing fragmentation of dhole’s populations.

Asiatic Wild Dog or Dhole (Cuon alpinus)

Dhole is a member of the dog or canid family that also includes wolves, foxes, coyotes, jackals and domestic dogs.
Geographical Spread:
- Global: Historically, dholes purportedly occurred throughout southern Russia, all across central Asia, south Asia and southeast Asia.
- India:Western and Eastern Ghats, central Indian landscape and North East India.
Conservation Status:
- IUCN List of Threatened Species: Endangered
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix II
- Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 : Schedule II