Elephant Migration in Eastern Maharashtra: A Thermal Drone Approach to Wildlife Tracking

Abstract

Animal migrations are dynamic phenomena that vary over space and time, even among closely related species, populations, and individuals. For example, in many animals there is substantial geographic variation in the migratory tendencies of different subspecies, races, or populations—birds that breed in the north may migrate long distances south to spend the winter, whereas members of the same species that breed at lower latitudes may be entirely sedentary (i.e., non-migratory). Further, even within a discrete population, there can be systematic differences in the distance, routes, endpoints, or seasonal timing of migrations among male versus female or younger versus older individuals. Such variation in migratory behaviours can emerge rapidly over “evolutionary time scales” (e.g., thousands of years)— including over contemporary times (e.g., years or decades) in response to human activities such as habitat alteration and climate change. We know that elephants are more than mentally capable of migrating, but what initiates this travel? One cause for elephant herds' migration is the dry season's search for food. Elephant herds can have up to 100 individuals who must all eat to survive. Elephants can be incredibly aggressive towards humans in a variety of circumstances. Apart from male elephants during must, female elephants may become more aggressive after giving birth or having a calf born within the herd. Elephants are naturally peaceful creatures, but they may get violent under certain circumstances. For instance, mother elephants may aggressively defend their young when they are threatened. Furthermore, when asserting their dominance, male elephants can be hostile. Throughout Asia and Africa, crop raiding has become a severe problem for many farmers. Elephant herds come to villages and eat and stomp on crops leading to severe damage to villagers and farmers. This has become such a significant problem throughout elephant territories that throughout 1997 450,000 square meters of cropland were damaged or destroyed by elephant herds.  Data for this article were obtained from field studies (since 2020-2023) aimed at a broader survey of wildlife in general in different areas of Maharashtra India. In this study we provide results from a thermal infrared and Red Green Blue (RGB) survey of migration of elephants in the  Gadchiroli area of Maharashtra.  The survey was undertaken using a UAV equipped with a point and shoot digital camera for standard visible images (RGB), and a thermal infrared camera.