Bista Damber, Baxter Greg S, Hudson Nicholas J, Lama Sonam Tashi, Murray Peter John
School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD 4343 Australia.
Red Panda Network, Baluwatar, Kathmandu, 44600 Nepal.
Landsc Ecol. 2022;37(3):795-809. doi: 10.1007/s10980-021-01357-w. Epub 2021 Oct 24.
Habitat specialists residing in human-modified landscapes are likely to be more vulnerable to disturbance because of a functional reliance on very particular habitat features. However, there have been few studies designed to specifically address that issue.
This study aimed to explore how the red panda, an iconic endangered habitat specialist, behaves when faced with disturbances and habitat fragmentation. In particular, we attempted to examine the effect of anthropogenic disturbances and fragmentation on home-range size, activity patterns, and recursion.
Using GPS telemetry we monitored 10 red pandas and documented disturbances using camera trapping for one year in eastern Nepal. We performed spatial analysis, analysed activity patterns and evaluated the effect of habitat fragmentation and disturbances on home-range size and residence time using Linear Mixed Models.
Home-range size increased in areas with low availability of forest cover whilst home ranges were smaller in areas with a high road density. Red pandas spent more time in large habitat patches away from roads and cattle stations. Crossing rates suggested that roads acted as a barrier for movement across their habitat. Red pandas also partitioned their activity to minimize interactions with disturbances.
Red pandas seem to make a trade-off to co-exist in human-dominated landscapes which may have adverse long-term effects on their survival. This indicates that current patterns of habitat fragmentation and forest exploitation may be adversely affecting red panda conservation efforts and that landscape-scale effects should be considered when planning conservation actions.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-021-01357-w.
由于对特定栖息地特征的功能依赖，生活在人类改造景观中的栖息地专家可能更容易受到干扰。然而，很少有研究专门针对这个问题。
本研究旨在探讨小熊猫这一标志性濒危栖息地专家在面对干扰和栖息地破碎化时的行为。特别是，我们试图研究人为干扰和破碎化对其家域大小、活动模式和递归的影响。
我们在尼泊尔东部使用GPS遥测技术监测了10只小熊猫，并通过相机陷阱记录干扰情况，为期一年。我们进行了空间分析，分析了活动模式，并使用线性混合模型评估了栖息地破碎化和干扰对家域大小和居留时间的影响。
森林覆盖率低的地区家域大小增加，而道路密度高的地区家域较小。小熊猫在远离道路和畜牧站的大型栖息地斑块中花费更多时间。穿越率表明道路成为其栖息地内移动的障碍。小熊猫还划分其活动以尽量减少与干扰的相互作用。
小熊猫似乎在人类主导的景观中进行权衡以共存，这可能对它们的生存产生不利的长期影响。这表明当前的栖息地破碎化和森林开发模式可能对小熊猫的保护工作产生不利影响，并且在规划保护行动时应考虑景观尺度的影响。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10980-021-01357-w获取的补充材料。
