Post-release movement and habitat selection of reintroduced gaur (Bos gaurus gaurus) during exploration and post-settlement in central India

Understanding how reintroduced large herbivores adjust to unfamiliar landscapes is essential for evaluating reintroduction success and guiding post-release management. However, early post-release exploratory movements are often pooled with later space use, leading to inflated home-range estimates and misleading inferences about habitat selection. We examined post-release movement and habitat selection of reintroduced gaur in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve, central India, by explicitly distinguishing between exploratory and post-settlement phases. Using telemetry data from seven individuals, we quantified the duration of exploration, changes in home-range size and stability, site fidelity, and phase-specific habitat selection. All individuals exhibited a prolonged exploratory phase characterised by rapid expansion of space use, followed by stabilisation and strong site fidelity, indicating successful settlement within the release landscape. Exploration persisted for 90–200 days, during which individuals used large and highly variable areas (33–440 km²). Following settlement, space use became more constrained and less variable among individuals. Habitat selection differed markedly between phases: during exploration, gaur broadly used the landscape, while selecting forested areas and higher elevations and strongly avoiding human settlements and agricultural land. After settlement, habitat selection became more focused, with increased selection for dense and moderately dense forest, rugged terrain, and proximity to rivers, alongside consistent avoidance of anthropogenic areas. Our results show that prolonged post-release exploration in reintroduced gaur represents adaptive landscape learning rather than maladjustment. Ignoring this phase can misrepresent spatial requirements and habitat preferences, with direct consequences for reintroduction assessment, monitoring timelines, and habitat management. Phase-specific analyses are therefore critical for accurately evaluating large herbivore reintroductions and informing conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes.