Hitesh Kumar
The global decline of vertebrate scavengers in the anthropocene has raised many concerns about ecosystem health and balance. Ecological insights on obligate and facultative scavenging of domestic and wild ungulate carcasses by wildlife species has been overlooked in semi-arid ecosystems of India, where livestock carcass disposal is a traditional practice by local communities. Carcass provisioning sites near the Aravalli hills support a large diversity of vertebrate scavengers in Haryana. However continuous fragmentation of Aravalli hills, vulture population decline, and rise in feral dog numbers in the state has not only led to the negative attitudes of local people towards scavengers but has also caused highly dynamic inter- and intra-species interactions within the scavenging guilds of wildlife. In India, most of the studies are confined to species-specific ecological aspects of scavengers, however, the ecological measures of functional diversity of scavengers, interactions within and across scavenging guilds, seasonal carcass degradation and removal rates by scavengers are useful to assess their functional roles.
The study applies non-invasive approaches of infrared camera-trapping and in-person questionnaire surveys to fulfil the knowledge gap on the functional ecology of scavenging vertebrates in human-disturbed habitats of southern Haryana. With the help of a large camera-trap database from rigorous field surveys we will study the scavenging behaviours at various carcass degradation stages to evaluate carcass preference of scavengers. Richness, abundance, feeding duration, and visitation frequency of scavengers will be correlated with carcass size and biomass and carcass provisioning sites (regular and irregular). The 24-hour diel activity pattern of scavengers at the carcass sites will provide information on the spatio-temporal partitioning at carcasses across body sizes. These aspects will help us assess the functional role through seasonal monitoring of scavenging efficiency of species and compare the carcass survival probabilities. The questionnaire surveys will provide useful data on the local people’s socio-demography such as their health status, dependency on livestock, and major diseases which would help us understand their perception of scavengers as beneficial and/or harmful and their knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by the scavenging vertebrate community.
Overall, this study has useful implications as it aligns with the One Health approach where we will conduct conservation awareness workshops among various stakeholders about appropriate carcass disposal strategies and advocate the ecological importance of vertebrates as ecosystem service providers through their scavenging services for long-term conservation outside protected areas in semi-arid ecosystems of northern India.