- Dholes and Himalayan wolves were extensively persecuted across rural Nepal for preying on livestock, leading to their decline in the region.
- But recent observations suggest a resurgence of both species, possibly due to the reclaiming of their former territories: Himalayan wolves may have followed yak herders from Tibet, while dholes are believed to be recolonizing areas they had been locally extirpated from.
- Camera trap surveys and literature reviews indicate the recolonization of areas like the Annapurna Conservation Area and the Tinjure–Milke–Jaljale forests by dholes.
- Despite some optimism among conservationists, challenges such as competition with other predators, habitat fragmentation and human-wildlife conflict persist, requiring further studies and monitoring efforts.
KATHMANDU — Until four decades ago, villagers in Nepal’s mountains would likely name Himalayan wolves as their primary concern among the wild animals native to their region. Lower down in the country’s plains region, it was the dhole, or Indian wild dog, that rural communities would watch out for.
In each landscape, locals witnessed packs of wolves (Canis lupus chanco) or dholes (Cuon alpinus) hunt down prey, including livestock, using their speed, endurance and social cooperation to deadly effect. In many cases, wolves also posed a threat to people.
Locals responded with an extensive campaign of poisoning, snaring and shooting these wild canids. In the Himalayas, wolves grew scarce within a matter of a few decades. However, recent observations indicate they’re now returning, following yak herders from Tibet.
Dholes, too, appear to be mounting a comeback, reclaiming their historical range despite persistent old threats and emerging new ones, according to a new study published in the journal Oryx.
“Our findings suggest that dholes may have recolonized many areas such as the Annapurna Conservation Area in central Nepal and the Tinjure–Milke–Jaljale forests in the eastern part of the country where they had been locally extirpated,” study lead author Yadav Ghimirey, from the NGO Friends of Nature Nepal, told Mongabay.
As part of the study, Ghimirey and his colleagues carried out camera trap surveys, focused primarily on clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), reviewed existing studies, and interviewed herders and conservation practitioners to gauge the historical and current situation of dholes in the country.
“Our camera traps recorded five images of dholes, and the literature review and interview survey provided further insights into the historical and current presence of dholes in Nepal,” the study says.
Ghimirey said his own hypothesis is that even as dholes were being poisoned and killed outside protected areas, core populations persisted in Chitwan National Park and in another pocket farther east.
“Given the right conditions,” he said, “members of the pack explored their historical range, kick-starting the recolonization process.”
Dholes once roamed large swaths of Asia, from Afghanistan in the west to Laos in the east, and Russia in the north to India in the south. Today, no more than around 2,200 mature individuals are believed to live in fragmented habitats in Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, where they continue to face the threat of poisoning and persecution.
Bhaskar Acharya, an independent wildlife biologist who has studied dholes in India, said Ghimirey’s hypothesis about how dholes staged their comeback, not included in the study, could be close to reality. These wild dogs have evolved to develop “cognitive maps” by roaming around long distances in their home range, often showing younger animals where their old habitats were. “That way, the pack, especially the young ones, can see where they can hide to hunt prey, where they can get water during the dry season and so on,” Acharya told Mongabay.
Despite the advantage of learning the ropes in packs, their group living style could have also contributed in some ways to their downfall, Ghimirey said. “When someone poisons a bait carcass, they kill an entire pack as the whole group feeds on the same carcass,” he said.
A 2015 study looking at the dietary composition of these hypercarnivores (defined as carnivores whose diet is more than 80% meat) in western Nepal found that around 20% of their food came from domestic livestock. This high rate of livestock predation may be why communities harbor negative attitudes toward the animal, the study noted. “Persecution could have been high also because the government didn’t provide compensation or relief for losses caused by dholes,” Ghimirey added.
Raju Acharya, a co-author of the new study and also with Friends of Nature Nepal, said that now that dholes have started recolonizing their old habitats, it’s important to assess the threats, both old and new.
A lot has changed in their historical range after their disappearance for a long time. Tigers (Panthera tigris) are thought to push dholes to the fringes of their habitat, and the population of these big cats has tripled since 2010. Reports of human-leopard conflict have also increased, suggesting a rise in the number of leopards (Panthera pardus). At the same time, wild boars (Sus scrofa), a top prey for dholes, have also returned to the plains.
“Although there might not be direct competition between dholes, tigers and leopards, their prey base is similar yet declining,” Ghimirey said.
Similarly, urbanization is intensifying in Nepal, with people increasingly giving up pastoral lifestyles and moving out of the remote hills to settle in urban centers in the plains. “This may in some ways reduce the old threat of persecution and hunting,” Ghimirey said, adding that these factors may have played some role in allowing the wild dogs to recolonize their historical range.
There’s also been a loss of much of the dense forests that dholes are known to prefer. These are now increasingly fragmented due to the expansion of unplanned settlements, development of infrastructure such as roads and canals, and frequent forest fires linked to a changing climate. Feral dogs, many of which carry diseases such as canine distemper, also pose a threat to their wild cousins.
Acharya, the biologist from India, pointed out yet another challenge for dhole conservation in Nepal: not enough studies are being done focusing on the animal. Most of the camera-trap studies so far have been offshoots of other studies in which researchers were looking at species other than dholes. He also suggested that future studies incorporate satellite collaring of dholes, as such studies in India have helped track down the animal in unexpected places.
It’s equally important to study the prey base, especially sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), he said, drawing from his own experience studying dholes. “In India, dholes are found in different landscapes and have a wide prey base,” he said. “We’ve seen cases where dholes pass by livestock and people and they don’t attack. It’s because they prefer to hunt and feed themselves in the wild.”
This goes to show, Acharya said, that if dholes get to eat their preferred prey, instances of human-dhole conflict can be minimized.
As conservationists welcome the reemergence of dholes, they’re also closely monitoring what’s going on in the mountains, home to their cousins, the Himalayan wolves. Although the government has declared that it will provide compensation for any losses caused by either wolves or dholes, conservationists say they’re skeptical this will stop history from repeating itself.
Acharya, the study co-author, said there are reasons to be optimistic, but that more studies and monitoring are required.
Banner image: Dholes hunting a spotted deer in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India. Image by Dr. Raju Kasambe via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Abhaya Raj Joshi is a staff writer for Nepal at Mongabay. Find him on 𝕏. @arj272.
Citations:
Ghimirey, Y., Acharya, R., Yadav, K., Rai, J., Baral, R., Neupane, U., … van Rensburg, B. J. (2024). Challenges and possible conservation implications of recolonizing dholes Cuon alpinus in Nepal. Oryx, 1-9. doi:10.1017/S003060532300073X
Aryal, A., Panthi, S., Barraclough, R. K., Bencini, R., Adhikari, B., Ji, W., & Raubenheimer, D. (2015). Habitat selection and feeding ecology of dhole (Cuon alpinus) in the Himalayas. Journal of Mammalogy, 96(1), 47-53. doi:.10.1093/jmammal/gyu001
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