Dhole or Asiatic wild dog Cuon alpinus,Dhole or Asiatic wild dog Cuon alpinus is one of the most remarkable, elusive, pack-hunting (usually five to 10, but up to 25 adults), endangered social carnivores in the Asian terrestrial eco-regions. Habitat fragmentation and degradation, prey base’s depletion, persecution (retaliation killing), disease and pathogens and predator competition (sympatric species) are factors for the declining Dhole population. Despite their endangered status, there have been relatively few studies of their ecology and distribution, even in Nepal. It was certain that Dhole presence in the flood plain region and open spaces was on the rise against the usual belief of occurrence in dense slope (Churia) forest. After its first scientific camera trap record of the Dhole in CNP, there is still no research dedicated to this carnivore. The record of dhole retaliation kills in Nepal, regional research gaps and no focused conservation activities from park authorities or conservation organizations for Dhole, strongly indicate an urgent need for a conservation project to determine Dhole’s status, distribution, and threats to support management authority and aware communities to motivate for the conservation of the species.

Apart from few isolated local conservation efforts in Nepal (back in 2015), only opportunistic findings of Dhole have been recorded inside protected areas. Though Dhole requires up to five times as much as a tiger habitat to maintain its viable long-term population, their numbers and prey status in protected areas is still in deficit, which hinders their potential for conservation in the long term. Though historic occurrence in Terai and Churia (Himalayan foothills, the scattered population and lesser understood connectivity across Nepal make Dhole’s exact distribution at present unknown. Our project findings will supplement scientific evidence of Dhole’s distribution in the CNP-PNP-VTR complex of TAL. Retaliation killing, a major challenge for conserving dhole populations, needs to be resolved because it is hard to re-establish a population that becomes locally extinct. Buffer zones around parks/reserves are designed to maintain ecological integrity and to ensure community participation in biodiversity conservation and this buffer zone program around CNP has been firmly institutionalized. Making the most of this institutional setup of BZUC, we address to fulfil two gaps, i) empowering communities on lesser-known elusive carnivores; ii) reducing prejudices against dhole that correspond to their direct killing in retaliation. This conservation project foresees local community involvement in both field research and community assessment. These research compatriots are people not belonging to a formal science background or training, but who voluntarily contribute their time, effort, and resources toward a research project in coordination with a scientific researcher. Local people are familiar with their surroundings and such collaborative efforts will complement in producing positive outcomes for wildlife conservation along with a resonating effect in the community. An effective large conservation project can be mounted based on this ground-level foundation.

The overall goal of the project is to assess the Status, distribution, and conservation threat of the dhole in Chitwan National Park. The specific objectives of the projects are;

• To determine the status and distribution range of dhole.
• To analyse the diet preference of dhole.
• To identify prevalent threats against the conservation of dhole.
• To recommend appropriate conservation measures for the target species based on situation analysis.

The project is funded by The Rufford Foundation.