"This volume brings together a collection of case studies examining wildlife ecology and conservation across India. The book explores and examines a wide range of fauna across different terrains and habitats in India, revealing key issues and concerns for biodiversity conservation, with a particular emphasis on the impact of humans and climate change. Cases are as wide ranging as tigers, leopards, sloth bears, pheasants, insects and birds, across a diverse range of landscapes, including forests, wetlands, nature reserves and even a university campus. Split into three parts, Part I focuses on how the distribution of animals is influenced by the availability of resources such as food, water, and space. Chapters examine key determinants, such as diet and prey and habitat preferences, with habitat loss also being an important factor. In Part II, chapters examine human-wildlife interactions, dealing with issues such as the impact of urbanization, the establishment of nature reserves and competition for resources. The book concludes with an examination of landscape ecology and conservation, with chapters in Part III focusing on habitat degradation, changes in land-use patterns and ecosystem management. Overall, the volume not only reflects the great breadth and depth of biodiversity in India, but offers important insights to the challenges facing biodiversity conservation not only in this region, but worldwide. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of wildlife ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity conservation and the environmental sciences more broadly"--

This volume brings together a collection of case studies examining wildlife ecology and conservation across India. The book explores and examines a wide range of fauna across different terrains and habitats in India, revealing key issues and concerns for biodiversity conservation, with a particular emphasis on the impact of humans and climate change. Cases are as wide ranging as tigers, leopards, sloth bears, pheasants, insects and birds, across a diverse range of landscapes, including forests, wetlands, nature reserves and even a university campus. Split into three parts, Part I focuses on how the distribution of animals is influenced by the availability of resources such as food, water, and space. Chapters examine key determinants, such as diet and prey and habitat preferences, with habitat loss also being an important factor. In Part II, chapters examine human-wildlife interactions, dealing with issues such as the impact of urbanization, the establishment of nature reserves and competition for resources. The book concludes with an examination of landscape ecology and conservation, with chapters in Part III focusing on habitat degradation, changes in land-use patterns and ecosystem management. Overall, the volume not only reflects the great breadth and depth of biodiversity in India, but offers important insights to the challenges facing biodiversity conservation not only in this region, but worldwide. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of wildlife ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity conservation and the environmental sciences more broadly.

"This book covers selected topics on research methods in modern ecology, through the lens of 12 different chapters, focusing on animal ecology, landcover assessment and habitat change, human perspectives and management, and research techniques. Topics emphasize the development of enhanced computer software techniques and the syntheses of these into pre-existing research methods, chemical analyses, including studies of animal dietary and foraging patterns, landcover, habitat and plant ecological change and even human/animal relations, and genetic studies. Remote sensing and geographical information systems are considered as cutting-edge research methods, at small, medium and large-scale levels, including more accurate positioning systems, more sensitive tracking systems, the removal of obstacles to clearer observation and species identification, such as darkness and poor lighting, dense vegetation and coarse image resolution and more comparative studies across different local contexts and global ecosystems. The topics cover vulture ecology, the factors for the decline and management of Asian vultures, the use of tracking technologies including drones, in the study of urban vulture ecology, the use of thermal and infrared drones in the study of large mammalian carnivores, the role of remote sensing and GIS in the assessment of natural resource development, clustering around the central concept of change detection, the monitoring of agricultural development using socio-cultural parameters, the impacts of chemical pollution on raptors, the chemistry of vulture foraging, habitat dynamics for storks in Malaysia, Indian ecotourism in tiger habitats, and human-wildlife conflicts in Brazil. Other topics concern research on Bio-environmental Monitoring and Assessment using eDNA and Genome-based environmental monitoring, and the dynamics social perceptions of natural landscapes in Europe, and international examples of the Landscape Ecology of Urban Avian Scavengers. This book argues that these issues represent some cutting factors among the vast number of current ecological issues"--

This book on Wildlife Ecology is designed to be used as a textbook for college and university students for courses on Wildlife Ecology, Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology. Examples are drawn from the tropics where biodiversity is rich, and where natural habitats and wildlife are seriously affected by the increasing human population. Applications of remote sensing and geographic information system, and camera trapping of wild and elusive animals are introduced to students to equip them to be able to take up professional career in wildlife research, management and conservation, using modern tools and trends in ecological sciences.

This book demonstrates how varying levels of human disturbance manifested through different management regimes influence composition, richness, diversity and abundance of key mammal, bird and plant species, even within ecologically similar habitats. Based on our results, we show the critical importance of the ‘wildlife preservation’ approach for effective biodiversity conservation. The study also provides examples of a practical application of rigorous methods of quantitative sampling of different plant and animal taxa as well as human influences, thus serving as a useful manual for protected area managers. Protected areas of various kinds have been established in India with the goal of arresting decline in, and to provide for, recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem services. A model that targets ‘wildlife preservation’ under state ownership is practiced across the country. However, forests in India are under intensive human pressure and varying levels of protection; therefore, protected areas may also experience open-access resource use, a model that is being aggressively advocated as a viable alternative to ‘preservationism’. We have evaluated the conservation efficacy of alternative forest management models by quantifying levels of biodiversity under varied levels of access, resource extraction and degree of state-sponsored protection in the Nagarahole forest landscape of southwestern India.

This book delivers a realistic and feasible framework for creating resilient landscapes in an era of anthropogenic climate change. From across six continents, this book presents fifteen case studies of differing sociocultural, economic, and biophysical backgrounds that showcase opportunities and limitations for creating resilient landscapes throughout the world. The potential to create socio-ecological resilience is examined across a wide range of landscapes, including agricultural, island, forest, coastal, and urban landscapes, across sixteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Samoa, South Africa, the United States, Turkey, Uruguay, and Vanuatu. Chapters discuss current and future issues around creating a sustainable food system, conserving biodiversity, and climate change adaptation and resilience, with green infrastructure, nature-based architecture, green-tech, and ecosystem services as just a few of the approaches discussed. The book emphasizes solution-oriented approaches for an "ecological hope" that can support landscape resiliency in this chaotic era, and the chapters consider the importance of envisioning an unpredictable future with numerous uncertainties. In this context, the key focus is on how we all can tackle the intertwined impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and large-scale land-cover conversion in urban and non-urban landscapes, with particular attention to the concept of landscape resiliency. The volume provides that much-needed link between theory and practice to deliver forward-thinking, practical solutions. This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers who are interested in the complex relationship between landscapes, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-based conversion at local, national and global scales.

- presents an engaging and accessible examination of the role of systematic biology in species exploration and biodiversity conservation - clarifies misconceptions about systematic biology, reimagining it for the 21st Century - proposes an ambitious, planetary-scale project to inventory and make known every kind of plant, animal, and microbe on Earth - challenges the next and present generations of taxonomists to allow molecular data to assume it’s proper place alongside traditional data, to reembrace the fundamentally important mission of systematics - will be of great interest to those researching and working in systematics in botany and zoology, as well as professionals working in taxonomy and biodiversity conservation.