Social-ecological determinants of contemporary megafauna distributions in Indian tropical dry woodlands

Protecting large animals in tropical dry forests such like the tigers, Asian elephants, leopards, sloth bears, dholes, and gaurs in India is challenging amid rising human pressures. By analyzing social-ecological data with generalized linear mixed models, this study revealed that current woodland cover and reserves strongly predict the presence of all six species. However, human activity was a stronger distribution predictor for leopards, sloth bears, gaurs, and dholes, showing their ability to adapt to shared landscapes. Interestingly, legacy effects showed that areas with higher past forest loss had higher current megafauna presence. Overall, megafauna can coexist with people across diverse social-ecological conditions provided they have safe refuges like reserves and contiguous forests.