naa a22 4500 510737609 CHVBK 20180411083016.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11284-013-1031-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11284-013-1031-3 Understorey structure and refuges from predators influence habitat use by a small ungulate, the Indian chevrotain ( Moschiola indica ) in Western Ghats, India [Elektronische Daten] [Sachin Sridhara, Advait Edgaonkar, Ajith Kumar] The availability of refuges from predators and high quality food are thought to determine habitat use in small ungulates. We tested this hypothesis on habitat use by the Indian chevrotain in a tropical rainforest in the Western Ghats, using pellet-groups to infer habitat use. Between December 2009 and April 2010, we sampled 204 grids of 50m×50m with four spatial replicates in each, using occupancy framework. We quantified refuges such as fallen logs and boulders, understorey complexity, and noted the presence of fruiting trees in the grid. Detection probability, p, of pellet-groups was estimated at 0.61. The naive estimate of occupancy was 0.52, which increased to 0.73 when p was accounted for. Out of eight candidate models compared using AICC, the one with the number of refuges and understorey complexity was the best model. Both covariates had non-zero positive slopes. Fruiting trees occurred very infrequently and did not influence habitat use, perhaps because the chevrotain fed more on buds, shoots and young leaves during the dry period covered by this study. The strong influence of understorey complexity on habitat use was perhaps also due to the abundance of these food items. These results highlight the need to control human use that adversely impacts the availability of refuges and understorey complexity such as removal of fallen logs and rattans. This study also demonstrates the application of the occupancy approach in the study of small and elusive ungulates. The Ecological Society of Japan, 2013 Occupancy models nationallicence Rainforest nationallicence Feeding ecology nationallicence Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary nationallicence Sridhara Sachin Post-graduate Program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, WCS-India Program, National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore, India aut Edgaonkar Advait Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India aut Kumar Ajith Wildlife Conservation Society, India Program, Bangalore, India aut Ecological Research Springer Japan 28/3(2013-05-01), 427-433 0912-3814 28:3<427 2013 28 11284 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1031-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1031-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sridhara Sachin Post-graduate Program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, WCS-India Program, National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore, India aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Edgaonkar Advait Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kumar Ajith Wildlife Conservation Society, India Program, Bangalore, India aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ecological Research Springer Japan 28/3(2013-05-01), 427-433 0912-3814 28:3<427 2013 28 11284 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer