Patterns and Determinants of Habitat Occupancy by the Asian Elephant in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India

A comprehensive study reveals that Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) occupy 64% of the available habitat in the Western Ghats, Karnataka, India, covering approximately 13,483 km². This finding provides a critical baseline for monitoring future changes in elephant distribution. The research employed innovative 'detection--non-detection' surveys across a vast landscape and utilized advanced modeling techniques to account for variable detectability and spatial dependence, addressing key challenges in large-scale field studies. Notably, anthropogenic factors were found to be more influential than natural habitat attributes in determining elephant occupancy, highlighting the urgent need for conservation measures to regulate human disturbances. The study also underscores the importance of considering observation processes in ecological modeling to accurately assess species-habitat relationships.

Jathanna, D., Karanth, K. U., Kumar, N. S., Karanth, K. K., & Goswami, V. R. (2015). Patterns and Determinants of Habitat Occupancy by the Asian Elephant in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Plos One, 10(7), e0133233. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133233