Occurrence and Activity Pattern of Endangered Dhole (Cuon alpinus) in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha, India

The Asiatic wild dog or ‘dhole’ (Cuon alpinus) is an apex predator inhabiting south and south-east Asia. Lack of detailed information on its biology has designated it as one of the lesser-known species throughout its distributional range. Herein, we report the presence and activity pattern of dholes in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha, India through camera trap surveys from 25th August 2018 to 29 December 2019. From a total of 3150 camera-trapping nights at 123 sampling sites, we obtained 28 independent detections of dhole at nine sites. The activity of species is diurnal, especially in the morning and its activity seems to coincide with its major prey. Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary could be an important habitat and source population for dholes in India, because of abundant prey, lack of disturbance and good habitat connectivity with the central Indian landscape.