Scientists create photo archives of elephants in Karnatakas Nagarahole, Bandipur reserves

Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with Indias Nature Conservation Foundation, are creating a photographic archive of individual elephants in Karnatakas Nagarahole and Bandipur forest reserves.

Washington, Aug 16 : Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with India's Nature Conservation Foundation, are creating a photographic archive of individual elephants in Karnataka's Nagarahole and Bandipur forest reserves.

The team led by WCS researcher Varun Goswami has developed a unique "photographic capture-recapture" survey method that identifies individual male elephants, especially by the shape and size of their tusks, ears and other features.

Goswami says this can be used to monitor their survival rates and movement.

"Unlike African elephants where both males and females have tusks, only male Asian elephants have valuable tusks, so they are specifically targeted by poachers," said Goswami, lead author of the study in the current issue of the Journal Animal Conservation.

"In light of this fact, just counting all elephants with generic techniques isn't enough. Our new method allows specific tracking of male elephant population dynamics, so it is a powerful conservation tool," he said.

Working in tandem with the Karantaka State Forest Department in Nagarahole and Bandipur reserves, the scientists systematically took more than 2400 photographs of individual elephants, sampling game roads and waterholes over an 80-day period.

Male elephants in particular were given special treatment, with the scientists recording data such as tusk length, thickness, angle, arrangement, as well as other characteristics ear shape, shoulder height, tail length, and scars.

The data revealed some 134 individual male elephants in a population of 991 elephants, with an adult male/female ratio of 1 to 4.33.

The researchers say their new method complements traditional survey techniques, which can gauge overall elephant densities and sex ratios at population levels, but are unable to monitor demographics of male elephants with a degree of rigor attained by studies that focus on data from individual animals.

More importantly, such accurate assessments of male elephants can help conservationists monitor poaching rates over the long term. Also, elephant carcasses can be compared with archival photos to identify individuals and even to aid in law enforcement efforts, they said.

"The rigor of this technique can help us achieve real conservation success with the Asian elephants, which are threatened across their 13 country range," said Dr. Ullas Karanth, a co-author of the study who pioneered the use of the photographic capture-recapture method to study tigers earlier.

"We believe this method can be expanded to answer other questions relevant to Asian elephant conservation across their entire range," he added.

ANI