BANGALORE, INDIA: Conservation scientist Dr. K Ullas Karanth has spent almost a quarter of a century researching tigers in India. He has seen evolution of technology right from radio telemetry (radio-tracking) in early 1960's to the latest GPS-based tracing systems and used it all.
Ask him which technology he thinks is still the best when it comes to studying tiger behavior. Pat come the reply that it’s the old radio telemetry!
“There is no substitute to VHF (Very High Frequency) radio tracking when it comes to the study of behavior of elusive animals. A researcher has to be physically present at the place and study the behavior. None of the other technologies, however, allow this,” he dwells.
However, the tiger expert says he is equally keen on other technologies too. According to him advancements in both genetic and information technology has greatly aided carnivore research but the attitude of the bureaucracy towards the use of technology in research is not consistent.
Karanth points out that adoption to technology in wildlife research in India has been slow. "The first studies on carnivorous animals using radio collars was done in USA during 1960s. Since then the technology spread to Europe, Africa and other nations also. But the same technology was adopted by researchers in India only from mid 1980s, basically because of the governmental resistance."
"The technologies have moved forward quite a bit since then. Earlier, we had to attach a transmitter on an animal and physically track them with VHF radio signals. Now the tracking platforms and collars have changed. Now we have aircraft and even satellite-based tracking. There are also GPS collars that sends out signals on the transmitter location to satellite and researchers can download the data." Karanth notes.
CIOL: How have the advancements in information technology come in aid of wildlife research?
Ullas Karanth: One of the fields that has taken wildlife research to new heights is the information technology.
In terms of surveying animal populations, wildlife research was hampered all these years, as we did not have good analytical and statistical models of the underlying process that generates field data. Now, with the improvements in the field of bio-statistics, we are able to model population dynamics very realistically.
The earlier models were extremely simple. Now we are able to use very sophisticated statistical models to study the animal populations. And this has been possible because of the developments both in IT and statistics. Many of the statistical models are extremely computer intensive, so they simply couldn't be used earlier. Now, with the development of computing power, many algorithms, which were mathematically well developed, have become applicable to wildlife research.
CIOL: How useful has been the advancement in Genetics ?
UK: The advancements in genetics have also helped researchers in understanding the wildlife ecology and evolution better. DNA profiling technique has now developed so much that now we are able to identify individual animals from DNA, just like human beings.
A new technique that I have worked on in collaboration with Dr. Uma Ramakrishnan of National Center for Biological Sciences is on extracting DNA from tiger droppings and using that as the basis for individual identification of tigers. This technique has given a whole new non-invasive way of detecting individual tigers and tracking their populations and movements over time.
Further, pharmacological development of various drugs that are developed in animal husbandry has come in useful for wildlife research applications; because the same drugs can be used for capture and sedation of wild animals too. So both invasive and non-invasive methods used in wildlife research have become more efficient now.
Q: Can you tell us about your ongoing projects? What is the tiger population in Karnataka according to your research?
UK: Out estimates, partly based on data from Nagarahole, Bandipur, Bhadra and Anshi Dandeli and border surveys, is that there may about 220-250 tigers including cubs. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in its report estimated the tiger population at 290, but that excludes cubs and juveniles, I think.
Presently, I am involved in a project called meta-population dynamics of tigers in Karnataka. It involves monitoring the entire tiger population in Karnataka right from Kollegal forests to Goa border.
We are into the second year of the study and trying to estimate spatially mark core-breeding populations and assess determinants that influence tiger numbers and presence. For this, we are collecting scat DNA samples and also employing camera trap photographic technique. We are also using special software developed with a UK researcher that allows easy identification of tigers based on their stripes using pattern-matching mathematical models.