Factors Influencing the Seasonal Presence of Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat

Sloth bears in Gujarat inhabit fragmented forest patches running across the eastern belt of the state from north to south. With most studies focused on its northern areas; insufficient information is available for sloth bears in central Gujarat. Previous studies show food availability as the key factor influencing their presence, along with the availability of water, human activities, and forest cover. We aimed to understand the factors influencing seasonal presence of the bears in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary. We conducted grid-based habitat surveys from 2020 to 2022 with sloth bear sign surveys in two seasons; winter and summer. We found 45 locations showing presence signs in winter whereas only two in summer. This indicates a seasonal disparity in sloth bears’ presence. Considering the presence of sloth bears as the sampling unit habitat was studied. Two types of variables categorized as sample and site variables were used in the study. The number of termite/ ant hills, water bodies, and sloth bear-preferred trees with their fruiting seasons were considered sample variables while the vegetation types (woody, mixed and undisturbed rugged) and the land use/ land cover patterns (dense, moderately dense, open forest; agriculture and barren land) were considered as the site variables. We studied the variables using the Euclidean distance matrix in RStudio. Our findings show that the key sample variables included the number of termite/ant hills (0.03) during winter and water bodies (0.05) during summer. On analysing the site variables in winter sloth bears were closely associated with dense vegetation (0.02), while in summer they preferred undisturbed/ rugged areas (0.02). Considering sloth bears as seasonal visitors to the sanctuary, these findings shall provide information on the habitat preferred by the bears and are expected to support long-term conservation strategies and management planning in the region.