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Habitat suitability difference between sexes results in sex-specific dispersal. Although this behaviour is one of the key factors in understanding population dynamics, there are limited studies to evaluate it in arboreal species. We studied the distribution of the Indian Giant Squirrel (IGS; Ratufa indica maxima) from a sex perspective. We also evaluated potentiallly suitable habitat types for the species in the Nelliyampathy Reserve Forest, Western Ghats, Kerala, India. We used the sweep survey method to record the distribution pattern of squirrels and analysed the influence of climatic layers and other variables on the distribution using MaxEnt. The study revealed that there was a difference between the sexes in habitat selection. Males preferred more land-use types than females, which were restricted to only certain land-use types. Some of the major factors that determined the distribution of species were distance from urban settlement (50.1%), distance from shade plantation (23.2%), distance from rocky outcrop (9.2%), minimum temperature of the coldest month (9%) and precipitation of the wettest quarter (8.5%). The final MaxEnt model output predicted 49.07% suitable habitat for IGS, of which 45.47% and 34.42% were suitable for males and females respectively, with an overlap of 30.82% between the sexes. We suggest that it would be important to include a sex perspective in species habitat suitability studies in order to gain insights into sex-related habitat specificity and its role in dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), was first detected in India in 2018 and seriously threatened the maize crop. In South India, we studied the population dynamics of FAW moths and the damage caused by the larvae in maize fields from 2019 to 2020. In the kharif season, the highest male moth catches occurred in July while in rabi season, the highest catches occurred in November. It was found that the early whorl stage (EV-V6) of maize crop was susceptible to FAW due to its high larval load, whereas the late whorl stage (V7-VT) of the crop showed greater leaf damage in both years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the application of camera-trap technology in population dynamics studies of the Asian elephant, indigenously designed, cost-effective, infrared-triggered camera-traps were used. Usability of pictures was defined based on quality, clarity and positioning of the subject. With 99 pictures of 330 elephants, 20 sequences were obtained and 44 distinct individuals were identified. It was found that 38.6% were adult females, 4.5% adult males, 13.6% sub-adult females, 6.8% sub-adult males, 20.4% juvenile females, while juvenile males were poorly represented (2%), and 13.6% were calves. These results were surprisingly identical with those of other systematic and long-term studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]