Research overview: occupancy modeling of tigers at landscape scale

Estimating where tigers occur across vast landscapes requires methods that handle imperfect detection over large areas. This overview synthesizes the use of occupancy modeling, which infers the proportion of a landscape used by tigers from detection and non-detection data collected through sign surveys and cameras, correcting for the chance that tigers present at a site go undetected. It reviews how occupancy approaches complement density estimation by covering broader extents, how covariates such as prey, cover, and human disturbance explain patterns of use, and how repeated surveys track range contraction or expansion. The synthesis explains why landscape-scale monitoring relies on occupancy as well as density. For those following tiger conservation it clarifies how scientists map the shifting footprint of tigers across whole regions and detect early warning signs of local decline before populations vanish.