Thar desert’s unique predators dodge invasive dogs and plants
· Scroll
Visit sweetbonanza.qpon for more information.
Grasslands around the world are quietly changing under pressure from overgrazing, cropland expansion, climate change and biological invasions. In India’s Thar Desert, these pressures are reshaping which species survive and how they share space.
A new ecological study finds that two invasive forces, fast-spreading mesquite trees and free-ranging dogs linked to human settlements, are changing how native mesocarnivores (medium-sized carnivores) move, hunt and coexist in this landscape.
“Wildlife communities of the Thar Desert remain relatively understudied even as the landscape undergoes rapid ecological change,” says Chetan Misher, a wildlife ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Trust and the study’s corresponding author.
“Mesquite has become the dominant woody plant, altering habitat structure, while free-ranging dogs function as apex or dominant predators in many areas. Together, these invasives are reshaping native communities through habitat modification, changes in predation, competition and interference, with cascading effects across the ecosystem,”
Changing landscape
The Thar spans about 446,000 square kilometres across western India and southern Pakistan, covering over 200,000 sq km across parts of western Rajasthan and the Kachchh region of Gujarat.
To capture ecological variation across this landscape, researchers focused on two contrasting sites for the study: the mesquite-dominated Banni grasslands of Gujarat and the more fragmented, agriculture-influenced grasslands around Bikaner in Rajasthan.
Both regions support similar wildlife, including desert and jungle...