Adhikari Jagan Nath, Bhattarai Bishnu Prasad, Baral Suraj, Thapa Tej Bahadur
Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology Tribhuvan University Kathmandu Nepal.
Department of Zoology, Birendra Multiple Campus Tribhuvan University Bharatpur Nepal.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Aug 16;14(8):e70087. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70087. eCollection 2024 Aug.
The populations of many species of large mammals occur in small isolated and fragmented habitat patches in the human-dominated landscape. Maintenance of habitat connectivity in the fragmented landscapes is important for maintaining a healthy population of large mammal. This study evaluated the landscape patches and their linkages on two carnivores (leopard and Himalayan black bear) and seven prey species (northern red muntjac, chital, sambar, wild pig, Himalayan goral, rhesus macaque, and langur) between Chitwan National Park (CNP) and Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) by using the least-cost path (LCP) approach and the Linkage Mapper tool in ArcGIS. A total of 15 habitat patches (average area 26.67 ± 12.70 km) were identified that had more than 50% of the total studied mammals. A weak relation among the habitat patches was found for chital and sambar (Cost-weighted distance [CWD]: Euclidean distance EucD >100), showed poor connectivity between the habitat patches, while ratio of CWD and EucD was low (i.e., low LCP) between majority of the patches for muntjac, wild pig and leopard hence had potential functional connectivity along the landscape. Similarly, low LCP between the habitat patches located in the mid-hills was observed for Himalayan goral and Himalayan black bear. Furthermore, the multi-species connectivity analysis identified the potential structural connectivity between the isolated populations and habitat patches. Therefore, these sites need to be considered connectivity hotspots and be prioritized for the conservation of large mammals in the landscape.
在人类主导的景观中，许多大型哺乳动物物种的种群分布在小的、孤立且破碎的栖息地斑块中。在破碎化景观中维持栖息地连通性对于维持大型哺乳动物的健康种群至关重要。本研究利用ArcGIS中的成本最低路径（LCP）方法和连通性映射工具，评估了奇特旺国家公园（CNP）和安纳布尔纳保护区（ACA）之间两种食肉动物（豹和喜马拉雅黑熊）以及七种猎物物种（赤麂、花鹿、水鹿、野猪、喜马拉雅斑羚、恒河猴和叶猴）的景观斑块及其连通性。共识别出15个栖息地斑块（平均面积26.67±12.70平方千米），这些斑块拥有超过50%的被研究哺乳动物总数。发现花鹿和水鹿的栖息地斑块之间关系较弱（成本加权距离[CWD]：欧几里得距离EucD>100），表明栖息地斑块之间连通性较差，而赤麂、野猪和豹的大多数斑块之间CWD与EucD的比值较低（即LCP较低），因此在景观中具有潜在的功能连通性。同样，观察到喜马拉雅斑羚和喜马拉雅黑熊位于中山地区的栖息地斑块之间LCP较低。此外，多物种连通性分析确定了孤立种群与栖息地斑块之间的潜在结构连通性。因此，这些地点应被视为连通性热点，并应优先用于保护景观中的大型哺乳动物。
