Evaluation of anthropogenic pressure on the occupancy patterns of large mammals in the Western and Eastern Ghats

Context Habitat loss limits the dispersal of wide-ranging large mammals. It is pivotal to study the ecological and anthropogenic factors driving the habitat occupancy of large mammals for their long-term conservation and reduction of negative human–wildlife interactions. Objective To evaluate how the habitat occupancy pattern of the large mammals varies across a gradient of anthropogenic pressures. Methods We conducted ecological sign surveys across nine forest divisions including, Protected Areas (PAs) and outside PAs, along the Western and Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India. We used systematic grid-based Markovian occupancy model to study the effect of ecological and anthropogenic variables (prey abundance, habitat features, direct human disturbance and habitat fragmentation) on tiger ( Panthera tigris ), leopard ( Panthera pardus ), dhole ( Cuon alpinus ), elephant ( Elephas maximus ) and gaur ( Bos gaurus ) occupancy at 100 km 2 scale. Results Tiger and dhole occupancy was driven by the abundance of large and medium-sized prey. However, leopards also relied on the available small prey species and utilised fragmented forest patches. Large mammal occupancy increased in contiguous forests with water availability and decreased in landscapes with increased human disturbances and habitat fragmentation. Tiger occupancy was highly confined towards contiguous PA network while the rest of them had scattered but concentrated occupancy towards PAs. Conclusions The dependency of large mammals on contiguous forests suggests improving the quality and connectivity of forested habitats for their dispersal and reducing negative human–wildlife interactions. The low occupancy areas require urgent habitat management intervention to reduce grazing pressure and restore degraded habitats to sustain viable large mammal population at landscape-level.