By Emma Muench, 6th September 2021
Our September issue’s special section on conservation in India highlights research from across the country: from camera-trap studies in the Western Himalaya and Eastern Ghats, to the urban presence of leopards in Jaipur and sloth bears in Mount Abu, and more. Our accompanying Briefly spotlight features conservation news from India. The lead article by Pal et al. explores the distribution of mammals of the Bhagirathi basin, including the woolly hare featured on the cover. In the Editorial, Brittain et al. argue that it is time to bring human rights obligations to the fore of conservation research and action rather than viewing them as optional or simply as a means to achieve conservation goals. The issue also contains a host of Conservation News items!
Find out more about this issue’s content, including our Editor’s picks, below:
Conservation in India
- Mammals of the Bhagirathi basin, Western Himalaya: understanding distribution along spatial gradients of habitats and disturbances – Pal et al. (see blog post here)
- Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of group-living and solitary mountain ungulates – Pal et al. (see blog post here)
- Integrating camera traps and community knowledge to assess the status of the Indian pangolin Manis crassicaudata in the Eastern Ghats, India – Aditya et al. (see blog post here)
- Bats in a cave tourism and pilgrimage site in eastern India: conservation challenges – Debata
- Dependence of the leopard Panthera pardus fusca in Jaipur, India, on domestic animals – Kumbhojkar et al. (see blog post here)
- Vulnerable sloth bears are attracted to human food waste: a novel situation in Mount Abu town, India – Prajapati et al.
Behind the cover
The 7,586 km2 Bhagirathi basin in Uttarakhand State, India, encompasses wilderness areas of various types and protection status that are exposed to a range of anthropogenic pressures. Extensive camera trapping over altitudes of 500–5,200 m recorded 39 species of mammals, including five categorized as Endangered, four as Vulnerable and four as Near Threatened. Five of the species recorded were hitherto undocumented in Uttarakhand State: the woolly hare Lepus oiostolus (pictured), argali Ovis ammon, Tibetan sand fox Vulpes ferrilata, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx and woolly flying squirrel Eupetaurus cinereus. These findings highlight the importance of the Bhagirathi basin as a stronghold for the conservation of several threatened and rare mammal species. For further details, see here. (Photograph © Dong Lei/NaturePL.com)
Editorial
Conservation and the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities: looking forwards – Brittain et al.
“As we look towards 2050, it is time that human rights obligations are brought to the fore of conservation research and action rather than viewed as optional or simply as a means to achieve conservation goals. One essential step towards this is for conservationists to embrace international human rights law and policy commitments and ‘ensure that conservation actions are not only effective, but also compatible with international law and morally responsible’.”
The bharal, also known as the blue sheep, is a caprid species, and is an important prey for snow leopards in the Himalayan region. Photo: Ranjana Pal (see blog post here)
Other contents
- Monitoring should not be a barrier to conservation success: a response to Sanders et al. – Stephenson
- Emerging trends of the illegal wildlife trade in Mesoamerica – Gluszek et al.
- Temporal evolution of bushmeat traded in High Niger National Park, Guinea, West Africa – Duonamou et al.
- Does REDD+ have a chance? Implications from Pemba, Tanzania – Andrews et al. (see blog post here)
- Evaluation of long-term law enforcement monitoring in a West African protected area – Afriyie et al.
- Panic at the disco: solar-powered strobe light barriers reduce field incursion by African elephants Loxodonta africana in Chobe District, Botswana – Adams et al. (see blog post here)
- Food preferences determine human–elephant coexistence in African woodlands – Montero-Botey et al.
- Time to adjust: changes in the diet of a reintroduced marsupial after release – Bannister et al. (see blog post here)
- Assessment of the rarity and conservation status of the Colombian endemic brown hairy dwarf porcupine Coendou vestitus – Torres-Martínez et al. (see blog post here)
- The plight of the Endangered mountain gazelle Gazella gazelle – Yom-Tov et al. (see blog post here)
- Giant otter Pteronura brasiliensis density and abundance in Llanos Orientales de Colombia in the Orinoco basin – Garrote et al.
- Determinants of herder attitudes towards the Vulnerable snow leopard Panthera uncia in Yushu Prefecture, China – Hacker et al. (see blog post here)
- Factors influencing the occurrence of negative interactions between people and crocodilians in Mexico – González-Desales et al.
Editor’s picks
- Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of group-living and solitary mountain ungulates – Pal et al.
- Emerging trends of the illegal wildlife trade in Mesoamerica – Gluszek et al.
- Assessment of the rarity and conservation status of the Colombian endemic brown hairy dwarf porcupine Coendou vestitus – Torres-Martínez et al.
- Giant otter Pteronura brasiliensis density and abundance in Llanos Orientales de Colombia in the Orinoco basin – Garrote et al.
Camera-trap photo of a leopard with Jaipur in the background. Photo: Swapnil Kumbhojkar (see blog post here)
Conservation news
- International workshop to develop a conservation action plan for the Critically Endangered cao vit gibbon Nomascus nasutus – Nguyen et al.
- The future of Indonesian gibbons: challenges and recommendations – Setiawan et al.
- The roaming wild Asian elephants of Yunnan, China, pose a challenge to conservation – Jiang et al.
- IUCN launches Green Status of Species: a new standard for species recovery – Grace et al.
- A new breeding site of Hornby’s storm petrel – Riffo et al.
- Illegal logging threatens to wipe out the Critically Endangered African zebrawood Microberlinia bisulcata from Cameroon’s Ebo forest – Nana et al.
- Gender and illegal wildlife trade: overlooked and underestimated – Seager et al.
- New reforestation project in southern Madagascar to prevent the extinction of local endemic species – Donati et al.
- Mysterious death of 18 wild elephants in Nagaon District, Assam, India – Baishya et al.
- The Whitley Awards 2021 – Law et al.
- The Tony Whitten Conservation Award
- Call for applications for the 2022 Conservation Leadership Programme Team Awards
- Cambridge Masters in Conservation Leadership
