Researchers looking to learn about the territory controlled by wild dogs may finally have their answer — around 85 square kilometers. That’s nearly the same as a male tiger’s territory, which is about 60-100 sq. km.
Researchers from Wildlife Conservation Society India Programme, Centre for Wildlife Studies (Bangalore) and University of Florida, USA used camera trap findings to arrive at this conclusion, according to a report by the Press Trust of India.
“The study, based on intensive camera-trap surveys conducted in Nagarahole and Wayanad wildlife reserves in the Western Ghats, was part of a long-term project on tiger population dynamics in the region,” Press Trust of India reported, citing a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) statement.
The study was conducted from November 2014 to January 2015 in a span of 45 days, PTI reported. Unlike tigers or leopards, individual wild dogs, also called dholes, cannot be uniquely identified from camera-trap photographs as they lack pelage patterns or natural body markings.
India Wildlife News 