Figure 1. Map showing Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and Navegaon NagziraTiger Reserve in Eastern Vidarbha Landscape. Inset showing study area location in the map of India.
2.2 .) Field and Analytical method: Dhole pack size variation across study sites
In field studies individual identification of dholes is challenging because of their uniform pelage pattern (Modi, Habib, Ghaskadbi, Nigam, & Mondol, 2019), therefore we adhered to pack identification on the basis of activity centres (Stansbury et al., 2014). We surveyed study sites through camera trapping and identified activity centres on the basis of pack’s activity hotspots and concentrated indirect signs. The understnading of movement patterns from telemetry study at our study sites suggests that the core home range/ activity centres for dhole pack ranges from 1 km2 to 11 km2 i.e. the area exclusive to a pack’s territory (Ghaskadbi et al. Unpublished).. Therefore, based on our observations of activity hotspots, sightings of packs were only recorded at their activity hotspots. The sightings at overlapping pack boundaries were not included to avoided confusion between the packs.