Dhole
Dhole Working Group
The Dhole Working Group comprises 21 members working with the species across its distribution range. The group’s overarching goal is to promote dhole conservation by facilitating research, strengthening collaborative efforts, and disseminating scientific findings to both the research community and the public. In addition, the group aims to generate new knowledge about dhole biology, improve understanding of the threats they face, and identify effective mitigation strategies. Finally, the working group compiles and updates information on the species’ distribution, a foundation that is critical for population viability assessments and the development of evidence-based conservation action plans.
Past achievements of the working group include organizing the Population and Habitat Viability Assessment workshop and publishing the resulting report in 2019, as well as hosting the International Dhole Conference in Nepal. The latter effort stimulated interest among governmental and non-governmental organizations that in turn, contributed to the development of the national conservation action plan for the species.
Coordinator: Nucharin Songsasen
Facilitate the development of country specific action plans in Thailand and Nepal.
Understand the extent to which diseases impact dhole population viability.
Understand and identify mitigation strategies to address human-dhole conflicts.
Complete the Red List assessment.
Complete the Green Status assessment.
Projects conducted by working group members.
Human–dhole interactions in Bhutan:
- Mapping dhole habitat and potential livestock depredation risk.
- Examining how herding practices and livelihoods shape exposure to livestock losses.
- Exploring how cultural meanings influence perceptions of tigers and dholes.
- Investigating which livestock losses are reported to authorities and why.
- Bringing ecological and social findings together to identify pathways for coexistence.
The Last Northern Dholes project in the Qilian Mountains. The project uses camera trap survey and scientific monitoring to support dhole conservation — including the establishment of China’s first provincial nature reserve for the species. Watch the video
Ecology, behavior and populations
- Multi-year, multi-site population monitoring of a dhole metapopulation in India’s Western Ghats using molecular methods and Spatial Capture–Recapture models
- Evaluation of camera-trap based methods to estimate dhole populations in the agroforests of India’s Western Ghats
- Application of metabarcoding approaches to understand dhole diet and prey preferences at the landscape scale
- Decoding vocal–behavioral repertoire of dholes using multiple data sources
- Linking observations, bioacoustics and ecological contexts for detailed assessments of dhole social behavior
- Profiling the composition of dhole excretions to understand chemical signalling as a means of non audio-visual communication
Human–dhole interactions
- Harnessing Local Ecological Knowledge to document dhole behavior and interactions in mixed-use landscapes
- Understanding dholes in human culture, folklore and religion through qualitative assessments in shared landscapes
- Impacts of unmanaged garbage dump-sites on dhole ecology and their interactions with sympatric carnivores
- Drivers of physiological stress in dholes across a gradient of shared spaces
- Anthropogenic impacts on dholes at the pack-, population-, and metapopulation-levels
Policy and society
- Social media content analysis using ‘culturomics’ methods to understand public sentiment towards dholes
- Gauging the potential of coffee–tea agroforests in Western Ghats to conserve a carnivore community using dholes as flagships
- Using comic books, games and interactive sessions as a means to sensitize school children about dhole ecology and conservation
Engaging Communities in Dhole Conservation through Citizen Science in the Chitwan-Parsa Complex.
Transboundary effects on genetic structure and disease transmission risks in endangered dholes. This project integrates genomics, disease surveillance, and ecological data across multiple regions to understand how transboundary dynamics impact dhole populations.
- Understanding phylogeography and demographic history of ‘southern dhole’ populations in South–Southeast Asia.
- A perspective of dholes through time — prehistoric to present, and envisioning future trajectories under different conservation scenarios.
- Investigating the past distribution and extinction dynamics of the dhole across Eurasia and North America for modern ecological and conservation applications, using the dhole’s Quaternary fossil and historical record.
1. The impact of health on dhole conservation through the development of sampling protocols and sharing of health information and expertise. https://wildlife.cornell.edu/people/martin-gilbert
2. The Wild Canids India Project - https://www.wildcanids.net A project examining the ecology, distribution and conservation of multiple canids & one hyenid found in India. The dhole is a focal species of interest.
3. Status and conservation of dholes in Parsa National Park, Nepal. https://wildlife.cornell.edu/people/martin-gilbert
4. Dhole ecology and conservation in Indonesia. Website: https://snm.ku.dk/english/staffsnm/research-and-collections/?pure=en/persons/394173
5. Movement ecology of dholes in Thai protected areas. https://movementoflife.si.edu/species/dhole/
6. Conservation priorities for dhole in Nepal and globally. The main objectives are to:
- Update the global multi scale species distribution model for dholes
- Update the global scale connectivity analysis of dhole sub-populations
- Build a global scale PVA for dholes using meta population framework
- Conduct an expert occupancy survey for dholes in Nepal with fine scale connectivity analysis
7. Evaluating community managed livestock insurance schemes and conflict prevention for dholes and large carnivores in eastern and central Nepal Himalayas.