A struggle to co-exist with humans

Key Facts:-

• The article notes the changes observed in the Himalayan realm and the effect it has had on the ungulates (large hoofed mammals).

Details:

• There has been an increase in domesticated cashmere goats and stray dogs that have started hunting ungulates including threatened, endangered, and rare ones such as kiang, chiru, saiga, and takin.
• The research study also draws similarities between the Himalaya and the Andes, both homes to unique ungulate fauna. Both are currently experiencing increased deglaciation, human colonization, climate alteration, and livestock & tourism-induced changes.

Concerns:

• The threat posed by stray dogs:
• A research study notes that the 400 million free-ranging dogs – through disease, predation, and displacement – have had a detrimental effect on the ungulate communities on every continent.
• Dogs prey on saiga, blue sheep, argali, chiru, kiang, goral, ibex, sambar, chital, and blackbuck.
• The high elevation dogs of Bhutan also harbor tapeworms which when consumed via grasses by yaks can cause coenurosis, a neurological disease that may result in about 10% mortality of young yaks.
• The threat posed by human activities:
• Human activities such as the seasonal relocation of agro-pastoralists to collect the worm fungus Cordyceps can also have an impact on the ungulates. These high-elevation environments have experienced minimal direct human disturbance, and this movement can lead to the displacement of native species.
• Many apex predators of the region have also suffered due habitat conversion and loss of prey base.
• Overharvest, poaching, and wildlife slaughter constituting the major issues of the 19th and 20th centuries will not be the most pressing in the 21st century instead, climate change and rapid destruction of habitat will constitute the key threat.
• High-elevation ungulates have been known to be affected through changes in ice and snow and the availability of snow patches.

Way forward:

• There is a need for conservation efforts to protect the remaining fauna of the region.
• The conservation efforts can simultaneously recognize that disturbed habitat and altered communities still offer important contributions to beta biodiversity.
• In ecology, beta diversity (β-diversity or true beta diversity) is the ratio between regional and local species diversity.
• Beta diversity measures the change in the diversity of species from one environment to another. In simpler terms, it calculates the number of species that are not the same in two different environments.