Table 7. Principal component (PC) loadings of covariates relevant for modeling tiger occupancy, Eigen values of the components, the percent variation of the original data explained by the PC, their ecological interpretation and a priori effect on tiger occupancy.

Covariates	PC1 (Forest)	PC2 (Human-Livestock)	PC3 (Chital, Sambar, Dung)	PC4 (Livestock Dung)	PC5 (Elevation)	PC6 (Gaur-Sambar)	PC7 (Legal Protection)	PC8 (Rainfall)	PC9 (Wild Pig)	PC10 (Distance to Urbanization)
Elevation (m)	−0.109	0.035	0.019	−0.032	0.962	−0.021	0.004	−0.059	0.042	0.116
Rainfall (mm)	−0.276	−0.033	0.009	0.005	−0.079	−0.048	−0.027	0.871	0.098	0.180
Mean NDVI	−0.795	0.017	0.037	−0.010	0.035	0.102	−0.002	0.195	0.037	−0.017
Forest Area of Grid	−0.796	0.041	−0.116	0.063	0.113	−0.067	−0.095	0.131	0.060	0.288
Core Forest Area in a Grid	−0.820	0.027	−0.059	0.053	0.008	−0.191	−0.120	−0.034	−0.015	0.069
Chital Encounters per km	0.032	0.031	−0.645	0.126	0.106	0.081	−0.037	0.167	−0.506	−0.075
Gaur Encounters per km	−0.100	0.058	−0.144	0.023	0.019	−0.950	−0.065	0.039	−0.033	0.023
Sambar Encounters per km	−0.072	0.062	−0.776	0.087	0.065	−0.268	−0.125	0.117	−0.086	−0.105
Wild Pig Encounters per km	0.053	−0.007	−0.153	−0.052	−0.068	−0.055	−0.050	−0.127	−0.929	−0.009
Wild Ungulate Dung Density	−0.084	−0.008	−0.782	−0.230	−0.201	−0.001	−0.014	−0.333	−0.019	0.118
Livestock Dung Density	0.075	−0.078	−0.009	−0.976	0.032	0.026	0.003	−0.011	−0.022	−0.051
Livestock seen on transect walk	0.040	−0.960	0.033	−0.044	−0.030	0.013	0.047	0.017	−0.009	−0.012
Human and Livestock Trails	0.023	−0.921	0.014	−0.028	0.012	0.042	−0.004	−0.013	0.018	−0.035
People seen on transect walk	0.014	−0.963	0.022	−0.026	−0.030	0.018	0.038	0.021	−0.005	−0.017
Distance of Grid to a Protected Area	0.165	−0.068	0.119	−0.004	0.005	0.071	0.968	−0.024	0.058	−0.055
Distance of Grid to Night Lights	−0.237	0.056	0.053	0.054	0.126	−0.021	−0.056	0.160	0.023	0.913
Eigen Value	2.143	2.723	1.712	1.045	1.026	1.047	0.991	1.016	1.149	1.006
% Variance Explained	13.39	17.02	10.7	6.53	6.41	6.55	6.19	6.35	7.18	6.29
Cumulative Variance Explained	13.39	30.41	41.11	47.64	54.06	60.6	66.8	73.15	80.33	86.62
Ecological Attribute	Large Undisturbed Canopied Forests	People and Cattle	Wild Ungulate Prey	Livestock	Elevation	Large Wild Ungulates	Distance to Protected Area	Rainfall	Wild Pig	Distance to Night Light
A Priori influence of PC on Tiger Occupancy	Negative	Positive	Negative	Positive	Negative	Negative	Negative	Positive	Negative	Positive