Affiliation:
1. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2. Department of Endangered Species Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
3. Aaranyak, Guwahati, Assam, India
4. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
5. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Abstract
The field of animal movement ecology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few decades with the advent of sophisticated technology, advanced analytical tools, and multiple frameworks and paradigms to address key ecological problems. Unlike the longer history and faster growth of the field in North America, Europe, and Africa, movement ecology in Asia has only recently been gaining momentum. Here, we provide a review of the field from studies based in India over the last 11 years (2011–2021) curated from the database, Scopus, and search engine, Google Scholar. We identify current directions in the research objectives, taxa studied, tracking technology and the biogeographic regions in which animals were tracked, considering the years since the last systematic review of movement ecology research in the country. As an indication of the growing interest in this field, there has been a rapid increase in the number of publications over the last decade. Class Mammalia continues to dominate the taxa tracked, with tiger and leopard being the most common species studied across publications. Invertebrates and other small and medium-sized animals, as well as aquatic animals, in comparison, are understudied and remain among the important target taxa for tracking in future studies. As in the previous three decades, researchers have focussed on characterising home ranges and habitat use of animals. There is, however, a notable shift to examine the movement decision of animals in human-modified landscapes, although efforts to use movement ecology to understand impacts of climate change remain missing. Given the biogeographic and taxonomic diversity of India, and the fact that the interface between anthropogenic activity and wildlife interactions is increasing, we suggest ways in which the field of movement ecology can be expanded to facilitate ecological insights and conservation efforts. With the advancement of affordable technologies and the availability of analytical tools, the potential to expand the field of movement ecology, shift research foci, and gain new insights is now prime.
Funder
Long-term Ecological Observatories Program of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate-Change
Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Government of India
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
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