Distribution and habitat preferences of the Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla (Mammalia: Manidae) in the mid-hills of Nepal

Suman Acharya,Suraj Upadhaya,Hari Prasad Sharma,Beeju Poudyal,Sonia Sharma,Rajeev Bhattarai

doi:10.11609/jott.3952.13.8.18959-18966

Abstract

The Chinese Pangolin is a ‘Critically Endangered’ species, which is estimated to have declined by over 90% in the last 21 years due to increased anthropogenic activities on the species and its habitat. Only a few pieces of research on the Chinese Pangolin have been done throughout Nepal; there is little information among the mammal species of Nepal, especially on distribution and habitat preference. This study was set to assess the distribution and habitat preferences of the Chinese Pangolin in Panauti municipality, central Nepal. We identified the most preferred habitat of the Chinese Pangolin using different covariates. Its preferred habitat was found ranging 1,450–1,600 m of elevation within a moderate slope of 5–25° steepness, forested areas in west-facing slopes. The maximum number of burrows of the species were found to be distributed in open canopy (0–50 % coverage). The increase anthropogenic activities in the agricultural land and deforestation in forested land has negatively impacted the occurrence of the Chinese Pangolin. We recommend that the community-based conservation initiatives like community forestry programs should be robustly implemented in the study area for better conservation of species and habitat in the coming years.

Highlights

Anthropogenic activities like illegal hunting and trading, deforestation, wildfire, increased agricultural landscape, and habitat fragmentation are the major threats to the biodiversity conservation in the contemporary world (Nepstad et al 1999; Wolfe et al 2005; Jha & Bawa 2006; Gibson et al 2011; Laurance et al 2014; Abood et al 2015)
Habitat preference The presence of the Chinese Pangolin was found in 47 plots (59%) out of 80 plots
Using the Akaike information criterion adjusted for small samples (AIC), our model revealed that the bestsupported models included canopy, habitat and slopes followed by the model containing canopy, habitat, slope, and aspect (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Anthropogenic activities like illegal hunting and trading, deforestation, wildfire, increased agricultural landscape, and habitat fragmentation are the major threats to the biodiversity conservation in the contemporary world (Nepstad et al 1999; Wolfe et al 2005; Jha & Bawa 2006; Gibson et al 2011; Laurance et al 2014; Abood et al 2015). To minimize the anthropogenic effects, several areas are demarcated under the protected areas system for biodiversity conservation around the world (Bruner et al 2001; Naughton-Treves et al 2005). The pangolin’s more suitable habitat is predicted outside the protected area of Nepal (Sharma et al 2020a; DNPWC & DoF 2018), and the species is facing survival threats due to similar anthropogenic activities that have reduced the distribution of the pangolin (Challender et al 2014; Acharya 2015; Kaspal et al 2016; Katuwal et al 2017; Acharya et al 2018; Sharma et al 2020a,b)

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