Suitable habitat of wild Asian elephant in Western Terai of Nepal

Abstract

BackgroundThere is currently very little available research on the habitat suitability, the influence of infrastructure on distribution, and the extent and connectivity of habitat available to the wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Information related to the habitat is crucial for conservation of this species.MethodsIn this study, we identified suitable habitat for wild Asian elephants in the Western Terai region of Nepal using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) software.ResultsOf 9,207 km2, we identified 3194.82 km2 as suitable habitat for wild Asian elephants in the study area. Approximately 40% of identified habitat occurs in existing protected areas. Most of these habitat patches are smaller than previous estimations of the species home range, and this may reduce the probability of the species continued survival in the study area. Proximity to roads was identified as the most important factor defining habitat suitability, with elephants preferring habitats far from roads.ConclusionsWe conclude that further habitat fragmentation in the study area can be reduced by avoiding the construction of new roads and connectivity between areas of existing suitable habitat can be increased through the identification and management of wildlife corridors between habitat patches.

Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal

“…We collected information on topographic, vegetation, and anthropogenic variables (Table 2 ) from several sources to use in maximum entropy modeling. The environmental variables considered in our models have been previously utilized for identification of suitable habitat (Sharma et al, 2020 ) and risk zone mapping (Karki & Panthi, 2021 ).…”

“…Efficiency of model prediction is improved by accounting uneven sampling bias (Kramer‐Schadt et al, 2013 ), and hence, spatial filtering in oversampled region was deemed useful (Phillips et al, 2009 ). The occurrence of mortality was therefore filtered by maintaining at least 100 m of distance between the points within each group of carnivores, hereby minimizing spatial autocorrelation (Karki & Panthi, 2021 ; Sharma et al, 2020 ). 58 points out of 64 leopard mortality points, 50 points out of 56 small felid mortality points, 53 points out of 60 Viverridae mortality points, and 50 out of 52 Herpestidae mortality points were retained for modeling after removing spatially autocorrelated points.…”

“…It has demonstrated the best predictive power across all sample sizes and has shown superior performance compared with other modeling software even when sample sizes are low (Elith et al, 2011 ; Wisz et al, 2008 ). This approach has previously been used in various studies to map suitable habitats for wildlife under the influences of anthropogenic, environmental, and topographic variables (Bai et al, 2018 ; Panthi et al, 2019 ; Sharma et al, 2020 ; Thapa et al, 2018 ). Though Maxent has been used to assess and map risk areas as well as predict mortality risk zones for various wildlife around the world (Garrote et al, 2018 ; Mateo‐Tomás et al, 2012 ), its application to carnivores in Nepal is novel.…”

Niche breadth and overlap among two sympatric wild ungulates and domestic cattle in Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal

“…Most of the park area is covered with Shorea robustaforest. Barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak ), blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus ), hog deer (Heylaphus porcinus ), rhesus macaque (Macaca mulata ) spotted deer, swamp deer, wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus ), wild pig (Sus scrofa ), and are the major wild prey species of tiger in SNP (DNPWC, 2016;NTNC, 2017;Sharma et al, 2020). SNP hold most of the remaining swamp deer population including Lagga Bagga, Krishnapur and Dudhwa National Park of India (Duckworth et al, 2015b).…”

Differential Impacts of Climatic and Land Use Changes on Habitat Suitability and Protected Area Adequacy Across the Asian Elephant’s Range

“…At present, most of the previous studies in this field focused on specific regions [11,25,30,42,43]; only a few carried out analytic experiments over the entire Asian elephant habitat area [44]. The establishment of protected areas (PAs) was expected to maintain biodiversity [45] and protect endangered species from human intervention [46].…”