LeopardPanthera pardus fuscaDensity in the Seasonally Dry, Subtropical Forest in the Bhabhar of Terai Arc, Nepal

Abstract

We estimated leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) abundance and density in the Bhabhar physiographic region in Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal. The camera trap grid, covering sampling area of 289 km2 with 88 locations, accumulated 1,342 trap nights in 64 days in the winter season of 2008-2009 and photographed 19 individual leopards. Using models incorporating heterogeneity, we estimated 28 (±SE 6.07) and 29.58 (±SE 10.44) leopards in Programs CAPTURE and MARK. Density estimates via 1/2 MMDM methods were 5.61 (±SE 1.30) and 5.93 (±SE 2.15) leopards per 100 km2 using abundance estimates from CAPTURE and MARK, respectively. Spatially explicit capture recapture (SECR) models resulted in lower density estimates, 3.78 (±SE 0.85) and 3.48 (±SE 0.83) leopards per 100 km2, in likelihood based program DENSITY and Bayesian based program SPACECAP, respectively. The 1/2 MMDM methods have been known to provide much higher density estimates than SECR modelling techniques. However, our SECR models resulted in high leopard density comparable to areas considered better habitat in Nepal indicating a potentially dense population compared to other sites. We provide the first density estimates for leopards in the Bhabhar and a baseline for long term population monitoring of leopards in Parsa Wildlife Reserve and across the Terai Arc.

Potential for camera-traps and spatial mark-resight models to improve monitoring of the critically endangered West African lion (Panthera leo)

“…Camera-trapping techniques using a capture-recapture framework (O'Connell et al 2010) have proven very effective in estimating population size and density of elusive and cryptic large carnivores such as tigers (Panthera tigris) in India (Karanth 1995;Karanth and Nichols 1998) and Sumatra (Sunarto et al 2013), jaguars (Panthera onca) in Belize (Silver et al 2004) and Brazil (Silveira et al 2010), and leopards (Panthera pardus) in Nepal (Thapa et al 2014) and South Africa (Balme et al 2009). Camera trapping for carnivores, especially felids, is now widely used for abundance and density estimation and greatly improves our understanding of wildlife population status (Meek et al 2014).…”

Factors associated with co-occurrence of large carnivores in a human-dominated landscape

“…Tiger and leopard photographs obtained in camera-traps were systematically sorted in separate folders. Paired camera-traps at each sampling point obtained photos of both flanks of tigers and leopards in most of the events (~ 80%) which enabled us to identify individuals accurately based on their coat marking patterns (Karanth and Nicholas 1998;Thapa et al 2014). Because paired cameras operated independently, ~ 20% of capture events were composed of photos of a single flank.…”

Density and carrying capacity in the forgotten tigerland: Tigers in the understudied Nepalese Churia

“…Churia habitat is adjacent to a southern valley with a human population density of 440 per km 2 (CBS 2011). The Churia habitat is the main corridor joining the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in India and the Parsa Wildlife Reserve in the east to form a Tiger Conservation Landscape (TCL) (Wikramanayake et al 2004) known as Chitwan-Valmiki-Parsa Tiger Landscape (Chanchani et al 2014b;Thapa et al 2014).…”