The Ecology of Javan Asiatic Wild Dog (Cuon alpinus javanicus, Pallas 1811) in Baluran National Park, East Java, Indonesia

The dhole (Cuon alpinus) is one of the least studied endangered top predators inhabiting the Asian jungle. Today, dholes population are estimated fewer than 2500 mature individuals remain in the wild and the declining population trend is expected to continue. These facts lead the IUCN to classify this species as an endangered species. In order to protect this species, the Indonesian government declared the dhole as a protected species through Act No. 5 in 1990 with respect to the law on the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems as well as in the Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia No. 7 in 1999 with respect to the law on the conservation of flora and fauna. Nevertheless, the efforts to conserve this species are not as intensive as other large predator such as tiger (Panthera tigris) and leopard which are listed as high priority mammals to conserve in the Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia No. P.57/Menhut-II/2008 with respect to the strategic direction of the national species conservation 2008-2018. Not only conservation action is absent in the field, but basic data on the population status of this species are hard to find in many protected areas including the national parks of Sumatra and Java. These limitations are critical constraints for the conservation and management of dholes in Indonesia and if no significant immediate action is taken soon, this species will face extinction in a number of its natural range. In order to support the conservation and management of this species we established a first systematic research concerning dhole’s ecology in Baluran National Park (BNP), East Java, Indonesia. The research attempted to answer four basic questions concerning dhole’s ecology including the actual status of dhole’s population and prey, dhole’s respond against the gradients of environment conditions anthropogenic disturbance, activity and movement pattern during the denning season, and the feeding habit of this species. The dynamics of dhole populations and its prey populations are fundamental for the successful management and conservation of the dhole. Therefore, estimates of the dhole’s abundance as well as its prey are critical information for management. Distance sampling based on a 287.5 km line transect was applied to estimate the density of dholes and their prey. In addition, a camera trap survey was conducted to detect the presence of this cryptic species and its prey. The dhole population was recorded for two consecutive dry seasons in 2013 and 2014 respectively. We were able to identify at least 4 packs that were frequently sighted at different locations: Bama, Balanan, Merak and Watu Numpuk. However, only two packs were found breeding in 2013 / 2014. In total, 15 prey species were identified during the field survey, consisting of small mammals (6 species), medium-large mammals (5 species), birds (2 species), and primates (2 species). The occurrence of at least four dhole packs with evidence of two of the packs reproducing successfully and the availability of prey in various sizes and from a range of taxa are evidence that BNP provides essential habitat for the dhole and plays a major role in the conservation of dholes on Java in Indonesia. An understanding of the response of the species under various environmental conditions in its natural habitat is critical for its conservation and management. The negative influence of anthropogenic activities on dhole distribution has also been reported in India at the landscape level as well as at the reserve scale. Nevertheless, the evidence of the dhole’s response to anthropogenic activities and the extent of environmental factors beyond site-specific studies are needed to support the management and conservation of dholes at the local scale, which might be associated with different habitat types and environmental conditions. In this research, the impacts of human activities as well as environmental factors on the presence of dholes were studied on 755 plots, which were distributed systematically across the park and their relationships were analysed using a binomial generalized linear model. We found that the presence of dholes was negatively associated with anthropogenic activities and positively associated with the presence of prey. This suggests that reducing anthropogenic activities and ensuring the availability of natural prey are crucial factors for maintaining the long term survival of this species in their natural habitat. It is also important to have a good understanding of their ecology during the denning season (including information about denning ecology and home ranges) if one is to support the management and conservation of this species. Knowledge about den ecology is crucial for understanding the denning strategies of targeted species in given environments, ultimately leading to reproductive success, while knowledge about home ranges on the other hand is also crucial to understand how much space is required, which kind of habitat is necessary, and the effects of various factors (e.g. food resources and breeding requirements) on spacing behaviour and movements during the denning season. Camera traps and radio telemetry surveys were employed to observe dhole activity patterns and movement over the denning period. The dholes showed crepuscular and diurnal activity patterns with most activities intensifying at dawn and dusk, and becoming less intense in the middle of the day. The dhole’s home range comprised of hunting grounds, water resources, and a den in the centre. The home range size was estimated at 744.86 ha (using the 95% Minimum Convex Polygon/MCP method), at 1418.28 ha (using the 80% Kernel Utilization Distribution/KUD analysis), and at 479.59 ha (using 90% Local Convex Hull/LoCoH), whereas the core area was estimated to be 636.36 ha (50% KUD) and 67.37 ha (50% LoCoH), and the size of the most greatly used area at 231.57 ha (25% KUD) comprising of the den sites and the hunting grounds. The dhole’s den ecology strategy was to use other animal’s burrows on steep slopes with dense vegetation cover and located on the opposite side of the hill to where human activity occurred. Den switching occurred every 2 weeks. These results indicate that dholes selected a den site that fulfilled their needs for food, water, cover, and predator evasion. As carnivore, the dhole’s life history strategy depend upon various factors like food, spacing pattern, habitat selection, distribution, social structure and movement pattern. Among those factors, food is the most essential resources for carnivore, because the evolutionary fitness of any predator depends on the quality and quantity of its diet. Therefore, information concerning food habits is important consideration in formulating management strategies, both in species and ecosystem levels. In this research, we studied the dhole’s feeding habit using scat analysis. In total, 54 scats were collected across the park during the dry season 2013 and analyzed to identify the food habits of this species. At least 20 prey species were identified during the scat analysis. Ungulates are the most important prey which was estimated to contribute more than 95 % of the biomass consumed by dholes in BNP. This result implies that as the major preys, ungulates have essential role to the dholes foraging ecology and survival in BNP. Efforts to ensure ungulates availability and to secure habitat will be the key for the dhole’s conservation in Java. Understanding the biology and ecology of managed species is the key to achieve the management success. However, most of wildlife management decision were made based more on the emotion and political agenda than on scientific data. As the result, the impact of management process become far from the expectation and in some occasion raise the new problem. We found that lethal control is an approach which mostly used along the history of dhole’s management and resulting the dramatic dhole’s population decline and explosion of wild ungulates population. Although the dhole’s received protected status from the most countries of its natural ranges, the conservation actions focused in this species have never been reported. The lack of baseline data for dhole’s conservation is still the common phenomenon in the most of dhole’s range. In Java, from 6 national parks which are identified as dhole’s habitat, only 1 national park which have baseline data on dhole’s ecology. This fact has hampered the conservation this species and has placed the future of this species survival into uncertainty. Gathering scientific data related to the dhole’s conservation by multidisciplinary team become the first priority which must be conducted. These will benefit to the management in resolving the problem arises during the management process. The reliable information can also be used improve public understanding to the biology and ecology of dholes and to shape public attitude to be more tolerance to existing of this species