Habitat suitability of four threatened Himalayan species: Asiatic black bear, common leopard, musk deer, and snow leopard

Rajesh Malla; Saroj Panthi; Hari Adhikari; Shiva Pariyar; Rishi Baral; Rukmagat Subedi; Bishnu Prasad Adhikari; Mahesh Poudel; Nischal Sedhai; Megharaj Poudel

doi:10.7717/peerj.16085

Habitat suitability of four threatened Himalayan species: Asiatic black bear, common leopard, musk deer, and snow leopard

PeerJ. 2023 Sep 25:11:e16085. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16085. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Forest Research and Training Center, Pokhara, Nepal.
² Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment, Gandaki Province, Pokhara, Nepal.
³ Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁴ National Trust for Nature Conservation, Annapurna Conservation Area, Pokhara, Nepal.
⁵ Division Forest Office, Mustang, Mustang, Nepal.
⁶ Division Forest Office, Manang, Manang, Nepal.
⁷ Division Forest Office, Gorkha, Gorkha, Nepal.
⁸ Institute of Forestry, Pokhara, Nepal.
⁹ Division Forest Office, Nawalpur, Nawalparsi (Bardaghat Susta East), Kawasoti, Nepal.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Biodiversity conservation is becoming challenging day by day. For this, it is essential to understand the distribution, habitat, and impact of anthropogenic activities on animals at risk. We assessed the suitable habitats and anthropogenic impacts on Asiatic black bears, common leopards, musk deer, and snow leopards in and outside the protected areas of Gandaki Province, Nepal.

Methods: We collected the presence locations of Asiatic black bears, common leopards, musk deer, and snow leopards based on scats and other signs. We employed the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) tool to identify suitable habitats of our studied species and their anthropogenic impacts on them.

Results: The total suitable habitat of the common leopard was found to be 6,052 km², followed by the Asiatic black bear (5,819 km²), snow leopard (4,447 km²), and musk deer (1,690 km²) in Gandaki Province. Most of the areas of suitable habitat for common leopards and Asiatic black bears were outside the protected areas, and for musk deer and snow leopards were inside the protected areas. Elevation was the most important variable determining habitat suitability of Asiatic black bear, common leopard, and musk deer, whereas the distance to water was the most important variable determining habitat suitability of snow leopard. Asiatic black bears, common leopards, and musk deer face significant anthropogenic impacts, but snow leopards face some anthropogenic impacts.

Conclusion: Managing these animals' habitats inside and outside protected areas is essential. Hence, biodiversity conservation and livelihood opportunities should be balanced in the Himalayas on a win-win basis.

Keywords: Anthropogenic impacts; Distribution; Ecology; Gandaki province; MaxEnt; Nepal.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Conservation of Natural Resources
Deer*
Ecosystem
Endangered Species
Panthera*
Ruminants
Ursidae*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the State Government, Gandaki Province, Nepal. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.