# Current Trends of Wildlife Research (with an overview of research in the past and lessons for future)

> Forty years ago, wildlife research in India meant reading tracks and signs and watching behaviour. Now it means satellite collars, GIS and DNA. A veteran crocodile, tiger and elephant researcher from Odisha asks that new gadgets not push aside traditional skills and jobs, and that scientists write in plain language for the field staff who use their findings.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2014-singh-current-trends-wildlife-research/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** L. A. K. Singh
- **Year published:** 2014
- **Journal or source:** Book of Abstracts, UGC Sponsored National Seminar: Current Trends of Animal Science Research in India, North Orissa University
- **Full citation:** Singh, L. A. K. 2014. Current trends of wildlife research (with an overview of research in the past and lessons for future). Abstract, pp. 4 to 5 in: Book of Abstracts, UGC Sponsored National Seminar, Current Trends of Animal Science Research in India, 21 and 22 March 2014. P.G. Department of Zoology, North Orissa University, Baripada, Odisha. 81 pp.
- **Access status:** Publisher link only
- **Where to find it:** https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Current+Trends+of+Wildlife+Research+%28with+an+overview+of+research+in+the+past+and+lessons+for+future%29+Singh

## Tags

- **Region:** Asia > India; North America > United States
- **Methods and technology:** Literature review
- **Data type:** Review
- **Observer qualification:** Not needed
- **Discipline:** Philosophy of science
- **Year published:** 2014

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** No species studied. The author’s own 40 years of work centred on crocodiles, tigers and elephants in India (no scientific names given).
- **Location and habitat:** India, mainly the state of Odisha (wetland and upland work); the United States is used for historical comparison.
- **Topics:** history and trends in wildlife research; tracking of signs and evidence and recording behaviour and natural history as the main methods of the 1970s; satellite radio-tracking; remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications; molecular studies for wildlife forensics; managing human-wildlife conflict (“man-wildlife interface”); socio-economic studies of people living in and around sanctuaries; overuse of statistics in reports; the gap between researchers and managers; non-invasive methods; protecting employment and traditional knowledge and skill from being overshadowed by equipment; continuity of long-term in-house research; writing in plain language for field staff; journal Impact Factor pressure; Aldo Leopold’s “Game Management” (1933).
- **Statistics or models:** None
- **Data type:** Review and opinion: a two-page conference abstract drawing on the author’s experience and on reports from the Government of India, the Wildlife Institute of India, the Government of Odisha, the World Wildlife Fund-India (WWF), the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and published information from the USA.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

L. A. K. Singh, a former Senior Research Officer for the Government of Odisha’s Forest and Environment Department and former Officer-in-Charge of the Central Crocodile Breeding and Management Training Institute, looks back over 40 years of his own work on crocodiles, tigers and elephants in India. He draws on reports from the Government of India, the Wildlife Institute of India, the Government of Odisha and three conservation organisations (the World Wildlife Fund-India, the Wildlife Trust of India and the Bombay Natural History Society), and on published history of wildlife research in the United States. This is a short conference abstract, not a full paper.

### 2. What they found

- In the 1970s, wildlife research mainly meant tracking of signs and evidence and recording behaviour and natural history. Research has since gone far beyond this.

- Current trends are satellite radio-tracking, remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications, molecular studies for wildlife forensics, techniques for managing conflict between people and wildlife, and socio-economic studies to ease the burden on people living in and around sanctuaries.

- Reports are increasingly “studded” with an overdose of statistics that average wildlife students, grassroots managers, the public and the media cannot follow.

- Organised research for wildlife management in the United States began in 1862, about 60 years before Aldo Leopold’s “Game Management” (1933). The United States experienced a strong disconnect between researchers and managers, and India sometimes sees the same. In the United States, private range owners and industry shaped research; in India, research is often opportunistic data collected as a by-product of management.

- Researchers from universities, conservation organisations, or protected-area managers themselves often lack continuity, because other duties or postings interrupt their work. The author credits three long-serving in-house scientists in Odisha (himself, Dr S. K. Kar and Dr C. S. Kar, each with over 36 years of service) as central to the state’s flagship conservation programmes.

### 3. What they concluded

- Today’s wildlife researcher must combine biology, ecology, sociology, geology, architecture, computing, statistics and law, and above all understand what they are studying and for whom.

- Methods should protect wildlife, avoid invasive action, not inconvenience people in the landscape, and use equipment in ways that do not take away jobs or overshadow traditional knowledge and skill.

- Wildlife science is for field use, so reports should be simple and understandable by grassroots workers. Because career pressure pushes scientists towards high Impact Factor journals, the author suggests a version for the international scientific community and a simplified version for local staff who put the knowledge into practice.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The author names tracking of signs as the foundation of wildlife research in the 1970s, and asks that new equipment not overshadow traditional knowledge and skill or take away employment. This speaks to the place of skilled trackers alongside newer technologies.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Current Trends of Wildlife Research (with an overview of research in the past and lessons for future) (Singh, 2014). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2014-singh-current-trends-wildlife-research/