Habitat Suitability Analysis of Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschus leucogaster) in Part of Western Himalaya, India

Abstract

Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) is considered endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is under Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, because of its illicit hunting for musk as well as habitat loss. The present study aims to study the summer range habitat suitability of this important Himalayan ungulate in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) of Western Himalaya, India. The study integrated ground presence point locations of the species with satellite data-derived variables in a binomial multiple logistic regression (BMLR) model to analyse its suitability status in KWS. Moist temperate forest (323.38 km2) was found to be the dominant vegetation type, followed by sub-alpine forest (128.24 km2) and alpine pasture (119.51 km2) in KWS. It was found that 7.39% (72.04 km2) of the study area is highly suitable, followed by 14.73% (143.68 km2), 13.43% (131.02 km2) and 64.44% (628.46 km2) area as suitable, moderately suitable and least suitable, respectively, for the species. The results also revealed that 71.59% (51.57 km2) of the highly suitable habitat occurs in sub-alpine forest, 18.41% (13.26 km2) in alpine pasture and 5.63% (4.06 km2) in alpine scrub. It was found that the vegetation type/land use was the most significant variable for habitat suitability assessment of the Himalayan musk deer in KWS. The BMLR model could successfully predict the potential summer range habitat of the species (Relative Operating Characteristics curve = 0.85). The findings of this study could be of immense use in the management of this Wildlife Sanctuary for better protection and conservation of the Himalayan musk deer.