Dog in the matrix: Envisioning countrywide connectivity conservation for an endangered carnivore

Elevated rates of anthropogenic impacts on land-use regimes have pushed terrestrial megafauna to the brink of extinction. Consequently, it is critical to adopt conservation approaches that safeguard individual populations, while retaining connectivity among these populations. Conserving spatially structured populations of imperiled species at large scales is often complex; the past decades have therefore seen a rise in spatial conservation prioritization exercises aimed at shaping landscape-scale conservation programmes.
We present a framework for informing nationwide connectivity conservation, linking ecological and administrative scales, to maximise relevance for management. We assessed connectivity of the endangered dhole Cuon alpinus among 155 potential source populations across India using a data-driven approach combined with graph and circuit theory. We used clustering algorithms to identify ecologically meaningful conservation landscapes; within each landscape, we identified...