Fine Scale Habitat Selection in Travancore Tortoises (Indotestudo travancorica) in the Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats
Travancore Tortoises (Indotestudo travancorica) are endemic to the Western Ghats, south India. Landscape level surveys showed no clear habitat selection by the species. Therefore, we used radiotelemetry to study home-range size and fine-scale spatial movement habitat use of four tortoises from 2008–10. Minimum convex polygon home-range sizes of four tortoises varied between 5.2 and 34 ha. Tortoises spent a majority of their time in evergreen forest edge that had bamboo–lantana–grass. Eighty-two percent of the locations in the evergreen forest, and 95% of the locations in the bamboo–lantana–grass habitat, were at the edge of these habitats. Therefore at a fine scale, tortoises used the forest edge, possibly because it provided opportunities for foraging and thermoregulation.Abstract
Physical features in the 110-ha intensive study area. Elevation at contours shown in meters.
Pattern in activity levels denoted by: (A) percentage of locations; (B) percentage of days spent by Travancore Tortoises from the edge of two different habitat types. 0 corresponds to the edge. Note: longest distance from the edge to the center of bamboo–lantana–grass habitat is ~50 m.
Gradient in the probability of occurrence of Travancore Tortoises, based on autologistic regression model, with an overlay of habitat and terrain features in the intensive study area.
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