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Cheer pheasant, a vulnerable species in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, is found distributed through the southern foothills of the Himalayas from Pakistan to Nepal. In Nepal, it has been recorded from few areas including the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) in central Nepal. However, no systematic survey has been conducted on this shy species in...
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... 10.3 was used to prepare the spatial distribution map of cheer based on the recorded GPS coordinates on each presence locations. Further, from the areas where cheers were recorded, five sorts of major threats (Table 3) were identified during the site visit and were assigned a relative rank from high (5) to low (1) based up on the criterion of WWF (2007) as shown in Table 1. Finally, it was further reclassified into four categories as Very high, High, Medium and Low. ...Context 2
... 10.3 was used to prepare the spatial distribution map of cheer based on the recorded GPS coordinates on each presence locations. Further, from the areas where cheers were recorded, five sorts of major threats (Table 3) were identified during the site visit and were assigned a relative rank from high (5) to low (1) based up on the criterion of WWF (2007) as shown in Table 1. Finally, it was further reclassified into four categories as Very high, High, Medium and Low. ...Citations
... These surveys aimed to identify and rank the various conservation threats in the study area. To rank these threats, we employed the relative threat ranking method, as described by WWF in 2007, followed by Kafle et al. (2020), Neupane et al. (2020), and Chhetri et al. (2020). The ranking of the threats was based on three criteria: scope, severity, and urgency which helped to understand and determine the most significant existing threats in the area. ...
The chital, Axis axis, constitutes one of Nepal's six deer species and maintains a closed population within the forest of the Institute of Forestry, Hetauda Campus. Presently, the chital population faces a range of challenges, prompting a comprehensive study encompassing population status, habitat preference analysis, and threat assessment. We utilized the pellet group count method on 74 systematic random sample plots (4×4m) within a 100×100 m grid for population estimation. Pellet presence/absence in predetermined habitat characteristics was analyzed to assess habitat preferences. Concurrently, a relative threat ranking method from household interviews was employed to evaluate existing threats. The study revealed a total chital population estimate of approximately 141 individuals, with a population density of 190 individuals per km 2. Their habitat preference showed an affinity towards areas abundant in Sal and riverine forests, along with an inclination towards locations further from roads within the forested areas. Primary threats to the chital population encompassed attacks from feral dogs, illegal hunting, and habitat degradation mainly due to invasive alien plant species. This study shows that with effective management of the feral dogs, mitigation strategy to control illegal hunting with the help of local authorities, and improving the habitat conditions concerning their preferences, the chital population has the potential to continue growing in the coming years.
... During this phase, participants were asked to list the major conservation threats to hispid hares in ShNP based on their field-based knowledge and experiences. Through this approach, nine major threats were identified and listed (Fig. 3), and these were subsequently ranked during the second FGD phase using the relative threat ranking method ( WWF, 2007;Chhetri et al., 2020;Khulal et al., 2021). We next provided each participant (7 members) of the FGD with a printed list of the nine major threats and requested them to rate each threat in relation to their effect on the hispid hare in ShNP. ...
... excellent discrimination, and > 0.9 superior discrimination (Hosmer et al., 2000). The top six rated conservation threats were additionally ranked following a method of relative threat ranking (WWF, 2007) by considering four classification criteria, i.e., scope, severity, urgency, and irreversibility (Table 2) (NHWAP, 2015;Chhetri et al., 2020;Khulal et al., 2021). These six significant threats were assigned a relative rank ranging from 6 to 1, where 6 implies very high with severe effects and 1 indicates very low with minor consequences. ...
... Better food availability, consisting of the grass species Imperata cylindrical and Saccharum spontaneum, and low human pressure in the study area could be possible reasons for expanding the hispid hare habitat range. Also, changing habitat conditions due to the impacts of climate change may have pushed the species to new locations (Chhetri et al., 2020). Pant et al. (2021) also revealed that the ShNP has a less suitable habitat than other protected areas of Nepal for the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), a grassland-dependent species with similar feeding preferences as the hispid hare (Subedi et al., 2017). ...
The hispid hare (Caprolagus hispidus) is one of the most elusive mammals and is listed as an endangered species both globally by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and nationally by National Red list series, Nepal. The species is experiencing a continuous decline across its distribution range due to increasing anthropogenic activities in its habitats. Limited information on the species distribution and the factors affecting its habitat use have restricted site-specific conservation actions. In this study, we aim to identify the current distribution pattern, factors associated with the habitat use of the hispid hare, and prevalent conservation threats in Shuklaphanta National Park (ShNP) of Nepal. We conducted a strip transect-based survey in January and February 2021 across 12 sampling grids of 0.5 km × 0.5 km. The presence of hispid hare was assigned to 1 if any indirect sign of its presence was observed "used plots," otherwise to 0 if any indirect sign of its presence was not observed ("habitat availability plot"). We next measured six habitat predictors (i.e., nearest distance to a water source, ground cover, ground condition, habitat type, dominant plant species, and presence/absence of anthropogenic disturbance) from both types of plots ("used" and "habitat availability plot"). We found that the overall distribution of hispid hare was clumped. Confirming a new distribution location around the Baba Tal area in ShNP will alert conservation managers to the need of a rapid assessment of its presence-absence across the lowlands of Nepal. Except for the nearest distance to a water source, all other five habitat factors influenced the probability of encountering a hispid hare. Out of six threats, four threats (i.e., grassland burning during the breeding season, grassland succession, habitat loss and fragmentation, and thatch collection from woodland) were determined as the most severe for the hispid hare. Our findings will enable park managers and local government to formulate and plan suitable conservation measures to protect this threatened and endangered species and its habitats. In addition, our results will act as a baseline for further research in ShNP and other similar regions.
... Of the large ground birds scattered in forests, pheasants rely more extensively on a complete forest ecosystem to obtain the food and habitat needed for survival [20,21]. Habitat fragmentation produces a series of chain reactions for pheasants, increasing the possibility of the local extinction of the population [22,23]. The landscape pattern index can be used to quantitatively describe the characteristics of landscapes' internal heterogeneity [24]. ...
... Since greenhouse gas emissions continue to cause global warming, the C. amherstiae may move to higher latitudes in the future due to its sensitivity to bioclimate. As a major challenge for ecosystems, global warming is predicted to wreak havoc on species with low dispersal capacities [12,54], and some research has predicted that pheasants will migrate to higher altitude or latitude as a response to climate warming [23,55]. ...
Over the past few years, the wild population of Chrysolophus spp. has decreased remarkably. Habitat fragmentation is a significant cause for this serious threat to the survival of Chrysolophus spp. population. In order to further understand the distribution of potentially suitable habitats of Chrysolophus spp., we used the maximum entropy model to predict the potentially suitable habitats of C. pictus and C. amherstiae in China based on the known distribution. According to the prediction results of the model, we calculated the landscape pattern index to compare the fragmentation of the two species’ potential suitable habitats in nature reserves and non-nature reserves. The results showed that the potentially suitable habitat for Chrysolophus spp. only accounted for a small area of China. The suitable habitats for C. pictus were mainly in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, and other provinces, and the model predicts a total area of 359,053.06 km2. In addition, the suitable habitats for C. amherstiae were mainly distributed in the three-parallel-river area, with a potential total area of 215,569.83 km2 . The model also showed that there was an overlap of suitable habitats between the two species in the western edge of the Sichuan Basin. Previously, hybrids of the two pheasants have already been found in this same overlapping area predicted by the model. The landscape pattern index showed that in the potentially suitable habitat for Chrysolophus spp., the fragmentation of non-nature reserve areas was higher than that of nature reserve areas. The results revealed the distribution of potentially suitable habitats for Chrysolophus spp. in China and highlighted that the
suitable habitats in non-nature reserve areas were in urgent need of conservation, thereby providing a key reference for the conservation of the Chrysolophus spp. population in the future.
Out of the 51 species of Pheasants recorded in the world, 8 species are found in Nepal. Among them, Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) are found in the lowlands and up to the mid-hills of Nepal. Kalij Pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos), Cheer Pheasant (Catreus wallichii), Blood Pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus), Satyr Tragopan (Tragopan satyra), Koklass Pheasant (Pucrasia macrolopha) and Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus) are found in the Himalayas. All 6 Himalayan pheasants are recorded in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve. Here we simply brief about the all species of Himalayan pheasants recorded in Dhorpatan.
