Effect of anthropogenic factors on movement of large carnivores
Mean displacement of large carnivores varied from 77.58 m/hr to 665.3 m/hr. We modelled the hourly displacement with each land use class, human density and road length in the home range of an individual. The data were analysed using two-way ANOVA to evaluate the effect of these anthropogenic factors within home ranges, between different species (Tiger inside PA, Tiger outside PA, Leopard, Dhole, Wolf) and also between different individual of the same species.
Mean displacement of tigers outside PA was 25.29% higher than inside PA and was found to be significantly different (p= 0.06). Forest area, agriculture and road length in home-range of tigers inside and outside PAs were found to be significantly different (pforest=0.06, p agriculture=0.03, proads=0.02). We compared the movement parameters of two social carnivores, the wolf and dholes. The mean displacement for wolf was 62.90% higher than dholes. All the habitat variables in the home-range were found to be significantly different between these social canids (P human density <0.001,P roads =0.005, Pagriculture =0.045, Pforest <0.001, Pwasteland/grassland =0.008, Pwaterbody =0.005).