Leveraging collaborations between researchers, wildlife managers and citizen-volunteers to monitor endangered carnivore populations across space and time
- 1National Centre fro Biological Sciences
Abstract
Monitoring populations is fundamental for conserving threatened carnivores, but can be difficult to sustain in the long term across large landscapes. We present a collaborative framework for monitoring dholes (Cuon alpinus) in India's Western Ghats, combining fecal DNA-based individual identification, Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) models, state Forest Department participation, and trained citizen-volunteers. We surveyed across six sites between 2019-2023, encompassing three Protected Areas (Wayanad, Parambikulam, Periyar) and their adjacent Territorial Divisions. Fecal samples were genotyped using a panel of 96 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, and detections were analyzed using SECR models to estimate densities. In Wayanad Sanctuary, densities remained stable across 2019, 2022 and 2023, increasing marginally from 15.67 to 19.01 individuals per 100 sq.km. In 2023, densities varied substantially among six sites, from 9.73/100 sq.km in Parambikulam to 29.23 in Nemmara Territorial Division. Field implementation involved an average of 46 Forest Department personnel co-collecting data per site-year. Among former citizen-volunteers who were surveyed for project feedback (N=29), 83% went on to either work or pursue higher education in wildlife-related or -adjacent fields. We demonstrate that molecular individual identification coupled with SECR can provide a practical basis for dhole population assessments while enabling multi-stakeholder participation in field monitoring. Sustained engagement with wildlife managers and locally recruited volunteers can strengthen institutional capacity, facilitate knowledge exchange, and improve continuity of monitoring programs. We argue that integrating molecular ecology with collaborative governance and democratizing field-science offers a scalable pathway for landscape-level monitoring required to guide dhole conservation.
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BibTeX
@misc{srivathsa2026leveraging,
title = {{Leveraging collaborations between researchers, wildlife managers and citizen-volunteers to monitor endangered carnivore populations across space and time}},
author = {A. Srivathsa and M. Shukla and P. Saravanan and D. Ganguly and M. Mohan and U. Ramakrishnan},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.16.752259},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.16.752259v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Leveraging collaborations between researchers, wildlife managers and citizen-volunteers to monitor endangered carnivore populations across space and time
AU - A. Srivathsa
AU - M. Shukla
AU - P. Saravanan
AU - D. Ganguly
AU - M. Mohan
AU - U. Ramakrishnan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.16.752259
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.16.752259v1
AB - Monitoring populations is fundamental for conserving threatened carnivores, but can be difficult to sustain in the long term across large landscapes. We present a collaborative framework for monitoring dholes (Cuon alpinus) in India's Western Ghats, combining fecal DNA-based individual identification, Spatially Explicit Capture-Recapture (SECR) models, state Forest Department participation, and trained citizen-volunteers. We surveyed across six sites between 2019-2023, encompassing three Protected Areas (Wayanad, Parambikulam, Periyar) and their adjacent Territorial Divisions. Fecal samples were genotyped using a panel of 96 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, and detections were analyzed using SECR models to estimate densities. In Wayanad Sanctuary, densities remained stable across 2019, 2022 and 2023, increasing marginally from 15.67 to 19.01 individuals per 100 sq.km. In 2023, densities varied substantially among six sites, from 9.73/100 sq.km in Parambikulam to 29.23 in Nemmara Territorial Division. Field implementation involved an average of 46 Forest Department personnel co-collecting data per site-year. Among former citizen-volunteers who were surveyed for project feedback (N=29), 83% went on to either work or pursue higher education in wildlife-related or -adjacent fields. We demonstrate that molecular individual identification coupled with SECR can provide a practical basis for dhole population assessments while enabling multi-stakeholder participation in field monitoring. Sustained engagement with wildlife managers and locally recruited volunteers can strengthen institutional capacity, facilitate knowledge exchange, and improve continuity of monitoring programs. We argue that integrating molecular ecology with collaborative governance and democratizing field-science offers a scalable pathway for landscape-level monitoring required to guide dhole conservation.
ER -