The Role of Dispersal in Structuring the Chitwan Tiger Population

Behaviour ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 124 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 165-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES L. DAVID Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Population Size ◽  
National Park ◽  
Genetic Variance ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
The World ◽  
Chitwan National Park ◽  
Tiger Population ◽  
Stochastic Events

AbstractDispersal in tigers was studied in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Thirty six adult and young were studied to monitor movements and social interactions relative to dispersal. Fourteen subadults were followed from before their dispersal until they died or established post-dispersal territories. Subadult tigers became semi-independent of their mother when her next litter was born. They usually remained within her natal area until the subsequent litter began to move with her at about 2 mos of age. Animals dispersed between 19 and 28 mos. Males dispersed farther than females and settled in poorer habitat. Three of 4 females settled adjacent to their mothers; in two cases the mother shifted her territory allowing the daughter to take over a large portion of the mother's former territory. Wounds on young prior to dispersal indicated that aggression prompted dispersal. Fjghts were observed between dispersers and residents. After fights, dispersers always left the resident's area. All 4 dispersing females established breeding territories. Females settled next to their mothers tending to reduce the genetic variance of a male's offspring. Eight of 10 males became localized in temporary, post-dispersal territories; 4 of the 8 survived. Two males died of poisoning and 2 from intrasexual aggression. Surviving males either expanded temporary territories or shifted to new areas to establish breeding territories. The Chitwan tigers are an isolated remnant of a population once continuous across the lowlands of Nepal. Effective population size was estimated to be <30 animals. Tigers did not disperse across cultivated areas but did travel through degraded forest habitat. No animal dispersed outside the Chitwan region and there appear to be effective barriers separating Chitwan from the two nearest populations 150 and 250 kms distant. The Chitwan population is probably one of the largest tiger populations remaining in the world. Isolation and small size threaten these populations with stochastic events that may lead to further reduction in population size.

scholarly journals Conservation Genetic Assessment of Savannah Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Greater Kruger Biosphere, South Africa

Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 779
Author(s):  
Santos ◽  
Fernandes ◽  
Henley ◽  
Dawson ◽  
Mumby
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
National Park ◽  
Genetic Bottleneck ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Evolutionary Potential ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Demographic Bottleneck

Savannah elephant populations have been severely reduced and fragmented throughout its remaining range. In general, however, there is limited information regarding their genetic status, which is essential knowledge for conservation. We investigated patterns of genetic variation in savannah elephants from the Greater Kruger Biosphere, with a focus on those in previously unstudied nature reserves adjacent to Kruger National Park, using dung samples from 294 individuals and 18 microsatellites. The results of genetic structure analyses using several different methods of ordination and Bayesian clustering strongly suggest that elephants throughout the Greater Kruger National Park (GKNP) constitute a single population. No evidence of a recent genetic bottleneck was detected using three moment-based approaches and two coalescent likelihood methods. The apparent absence of a recent genetic bottleneck associated with the known early 1900s demographic bottleneck may result from a combination of rapid post-bottleneck population growth, immigration and long generation time. Point estimates of contemporary effective population size (Ne) for the GKNP were ~ 500–700, that is, at the low end of the range of Ne values that have been proposed for maintaining evolutionary potential and the current ratio of Ne to census population size (Nc) may be quite low (<0.1). This study illustrates the difficulties in assessing the impacts on Ne in populations that have suffered demographic crashes but have recovered rapidly and received gene flow, particularly in species with long generation times in which genetic time lags are longer. This work provides a starting point and baseline information for genetic monitoring of the GKNP elephants.

Learning to be a Learner: The Role of Praise

1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Laurie Makin
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Care Centre ◽  
Early Childhood Programs ◽  
Child Care Centre ◽  
The World ◽  
Problem Solvers

It is through social interactions in meaningful contexts that children learn who they are, what the world is, how to relate to others and what is expected of them. In early childhood programs, children are introduced to the institution of education. In culturally diverse settings, there may be significant differences between what is expected in the child care centre and what is expected in the home. One of the most direct ways in which children learn how to play an appropriate role in this new setting is through their experience of being praised by staff. An analysis of praise during group discussion in four child care centres is presented. It is suggested that in all four centres, children in this situation were being schooled in passivity rather than being encouraged to be active problem solvers and seekers after knowledge.

scholarly journals The conservation role of forestry in South Africa

Koedoe ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.P. Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Republic

In September 1965, at the signing ceremony of a National Park Bill, United States President Johnson remarked: "We are living in the Century of Change. But if future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than with sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as God really made it, not just as it looked when we got through with it." In the same spirit, forestry in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) shares the responsibility of conserving and restoring as far as possible the environment in which we and succeeding generations must live.

Birds Without Borders

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-455
Author(s):  
Lino Camprubí
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
National Park ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Science Diplomacy ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Project ◽  
Environmental Diplomacy ◽  
Ecological Dimension

The Spanish Doñana Biological Station, inaugurated in 1964, poses two historiographical puzzles. First, it was the first large project of the World Wildlife Fund, which is usually seen as a response to the very specific post-imperial challenges of African parks. Second, it was the first non-alpine park in Spain, and although it was designed and inaugurated in the midst of Francisco Franco’s nationalist dictatorship, it was an explicitly transnational project. This paper approaches Doñana’s unique story through the concept of ecological diplomacy. It points to the diplomatic strategies mobilized by a small group of ecologists with managerial and financial skills. Promoting Doñana, British ornithologists presented it as an African wilderness, which created tensions with Spanish ecologists, themselves colonial scientists. Ecological diplomacy, moreover, refers to a characteristic period between conservation diplomacy and environmental diplomacy. In it, conservation was understood as the top-down management of foreign territories for research purposes. While this can be partly understood as the globalization of the Swiss model for conservation, it arrived in Spain through the mediation of the French Tour du Valat station and of English ecology. Finally, stressing the ecological dimension of this type of conservation diplomacy helps in studying the role of the science of ecology and its transformations. As Doñana became a national park, the WWF’s early emphasis on research was replaced by a new attention to recreation. Max Nicholson’s participation in the International Biology Program granted him an opportunity to favor this model when Doñana became a national park. This essay is part of a special issue entitled Science Diplomacy, edited by Giulia Rispoli and Simone Turchetti.

scholarly journals Inter-glacial isolation caused divergence of cold-adaptedspecies: the case of the snow partridge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyan Yao ◽  
Yanan Zhang ◽  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Gaoming Liu ◽  
Quan Ran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Hengduan Mountains ◽  
Glacial Period ◽  
Ecological Niche Models ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Cold Adapted ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Glacial Periods ◽  
High Elevations

Abstract Deciphering the role of climatic oscillations in species divergence helps us understand the mechanisms that shape global biodiversity. The cold-adapted species may have expanded their distribution with the development of glaciers during glacial period. With the retreat of glaciers, these species were discontinuously distributed in the high-altitude mountains and isolated by geographical barriers. However, the study that focuses on the speciation process of cold-adapted species is scant. To fill this gap, we combined population genetic data and ecological niche models (ENMs) to explore divergence process of snow partridge (Lerwa lerwa). Lerwa lerwa is a cold-adapted bird that is distributed from 4,000 to 5,500 m. We found 2 genetic populations within L. lerwa, and they diverged from each other at about 0.40–0.44 million years ago (inter-glacial period after Zhongliangan glaciation). The ENMs suggested that L. lerwa expanded to the low elevations of the Himalayas and Hengduan mountains during glacial period, whereas it contracted to the high elevations, southern of Himalayas, and Hengduan mountains during inter-glacial periods. Effective population size trajectory also suggested that L. lerwa expanded its population size during the glacial period. Consistent with our expectation, the results support that inter-glacial isolation contributed to the divergence of cold-adapted L. lerwa on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This study deepens our understanding of how climatic oscillations have driven divergence process of cold-adapted Phasianidae species distributed on mountains.

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