Abstract
Reintroduction of endangered species is an effective and increasingly important conservation strategy once threats have been addressed. The greater one-horned rhinoceros and swamp buffalo have declined through historic hunting and habitat loss. We identify and evaluate available habitat across their historic range (India, Nepal, and Bhutan) for reintroducing viable populations. We used Species Distribution Models in Maxent to identify potential habitats and evaluated model-identified sites through field visits, interviews of wildlife managers, literature, and population-habitat viability analysis. We prioritize sites based on size, quality, protection, management effectiveness, biotic pressures, and potential of conflict with communities. Our results suggest that populations greater than 50 for rhinoceros and 100 for buffalo were less susceptible to extinction, and could withstand some poaching, especially if supplemented or managed as a metapopulation. We note some reluctance by managers to reintroduce rhinoceros due to high costs associated with subsequent protection. Our analysis subsequently prioritised Corbett and Valmiki, for rhino reintroduction and transboundary complexes of Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki and Dudhwa-Pilibhit-Shuklaphanta-Bardia for buffalo reintroductions. Establishing new safety-nets and supplementing existing populations of these megaherbivores would ensure their continued survival and harness their beneficial effect on ecosystems and conspecifics like pygmy hog, hispid hare, swamp deer, hog deer, and Bengal florican.
Highlights
Reintroduction of endangered species is an effective and increasingly important conservation strategy once threats have been addressed
Of the Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) and on 100 bootstrap runs of omission/commission analysis with 20% test data showed that the rhinoceros model had a good fit [Area Under the Curve (AUC) = 0.96 (SE 0.0007)] and predictive ability (Fig. 1a,b)
Several identified patches sit inside Protected Areas (PAs) with some ready to receive animals, since threats have been addressed and park management capacity exists
Summary
Reintroduction of endangered species is an effective and increasingly important conservation strategy once threats have been addressed. The greater one-horned rhinoceros and swamp buffalo have declined through historic hunting and habitat loss. We identify and evaluate available habitat across their historic range (India, Nepal, and Bhutan) for reintroducing viable populations. Reintroduction and supplementation of megaherbivores would create safety-net populations and restore an important ecological role in currently degraded habitats[12] and recover the potential of such habitats to sustain historical faunal assemblages. The buffalo was once abundant across the northern and central plains of the subcontinent (from the Indus basin to Brahmaputra floodplains and into south China and Southeast Asia), but is restricted to small pockets in north-eastern and central India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand, with an estimated population of 3000–4000 individuals[16]
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