Adhikari Binaya, Baral Kedar, Bhandari Shivish, Szydlowski Michelle, Kunwar Ripu M, Panthi Saroj, Neupane Bijaya, Koirala Raj Kumar
Institute of Forestry Tribhuvan University Pokhara Nepal.
Pokhara Zoological Park & Wildlife Rescue Center Kaski Nepal.
Ecol Evol. 2022 Jan 12;12(1):e8491. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8491. eCollection 2022 Jan.
Anthropogenic pressures in human-dominated landscapes often contribute to wildlife mortality. Carnivores are especially vulnerable to human-induced mortality due to the perceived threat to livestock and humans. Despite having widespread conservation implications, carnivore mortality data have been largely underutilized within Nepal. This study utilized Maxent to identify high-risk areas and explore the contribution of habitat attributes associated with carnivore mortality using the casualty database within the Gandaki province of central Nepal. We categorized the risk to carnivore species in three taxonomic groups, Felid, Viverridae, and Herpestidae, and identified a 3704-km area within the province at high risk for carnivore casualty. The middle mountains were the riskiest physiographic zone, and the Annapurna Conservation Area represented the largest risk zone among the four protected areas. Agricultural land was the most problematic area in terms of carnivore casualty. The human population was positively associated with high-risk areas and the number of casualties, whereas protected area cover had a negative association. This study identified that the common leopard was at the highest risk of mortality and therefore would benefit from the implementation of an action plan and species-specific conservation strategies, especially within identified high-risk zones. An expansion of protected areas in the middle mountain region would serve to greatly reduce carnivore casualty. Species distribution modeling can be further used with national-level spatial and temporal mortality data to identify the most prominent casualty times and pinpoint potential casualty locations throughout the country.
在人类主导的景观中，人为压力常常导致野生动物死亡。食肉动物尤其容易因被认为对牲畜和人类构成威胁而遭受人为导致的死亡。尽管具有广泛的保护意义，但尼泊尔境内食肉动物死亡数据在很大程度上未得到充分利用。本研究利用最大熵模型（Maxent）来识别高风险区域，并利用尼泊尔中部甘达基省的伤亡数据库，探讨与食肉动物死亡相关的栖息地属性的作用。我们将食肉动物物种的风险分为三个分类组，即猫科、灵猫科和獴科，并确定该省内3704平方公里的区域为食肉动物伤亡的高风险区域。中山地区是最具风险的地貌区域，在四个保护区中，安纳布尔纳保护区是最大的风险区域。就食肉动物伤亡而言，农业用地是问题最大的区域。人口数量与高风险区域及伤亡数量呈正相关，而保护区覆盖面积则呈负相关。本研究确定，普通豹的死亡风险最高，因此将受益于行动计划和针对特定物种的保护策略的实施，尤其是在已确定的高风险区域内。扩大中山地区的保护区将有助于大幅减少食肉动物伤亡。物种分布模型可进一步与国家层面的空间和时间死亡数据结合使用，以确定最突出的伤亡时间，并查明全国潜在的伤亡地点。
