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First Photographic Dhole Record Confirmed at Panshet Outside a Protected Area

Dhole standing on a forest track in the Anamalai Hills, India
Conservation · Population & status

A research note published in January 2026 documents the first photographic record of a dhole (Cuon alpinus) from Panshet in Pune district, Maharashtra, India. A single animal was seen and photographed on 6 September 2025 at about 14:00 while crossing a forest trail near Panshet, outside any notified protected area in the northern Western Ghats.

The individual was identified from its reddish coat, bushy dark tail and characteristic posture, and the record was verified by a dhole researcher and a Maharashtra Forest Department official. The Panshet Dam catchment is a fragmented landscape containing both forest and human-modified habitat.

Shinde and Sonawane describe the record as further evidence of dhole occurrence across the northern Western Ghats and of landscape-level connectivity beyond protected areas. They note that information from this part of the range remains limited and recommend camera trapping and prey-base surveys in Pune district and adjoining landscapes to clarify the species’ current status.

Sources and image credit

  1. Shinde, S., & Sonawane, C. (2026). First record with photographic evidence of Dhole Cuon alpinus (Pallas, 1811) from Panshet, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 18(1), 28249–28251. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10179.18.1.28249-28251Primary open-access research note published online and in print on 26 January 2026. It reports the first photographic evidence of a dhole from Panshet, Pune district, outside a notified protected area in the northern Western Ghats.

Image: T. R. Shankar Raman / Wikimedia Commons. Dhole in the Anamalai Hills, India, 19 March 2008. Representative species photograph, not the Panshet individual. Cropped to 16:9. CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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