Volume 4, Issue 3 (9-2022)
JAD 2022, 4(3): 31-43 |
Back to browse issues page
Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:
Sharma B, Joshi R, Sathyakumar S. Habitat suitability modelling of Melursus ursinus (Shaw, 1791) (Mammalia: Carnivora) in the Chitwan National Park, Nepal. JAD 2022; 4 (3) :31-43
URL: http://jad.lu.ac.ir/article-1-255-en.html
URL: http://jad.lu.ac.ir/article-1-255-en.html
1- Sustainable Initiatives for the community (SIFC), Kathmandu 44600, Nepal
2- Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Hetauda-44107, Nepal; Amity Global Education (Lord Buddha College), CTEVT, Kathmandu-44600, Nepal ,joshi.rajeev20@gmail.com
3- Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun-248001, Uttarakhand, India
2- Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Hetauda-44107, Nepal; Amity Global Education (Lord Buddha College), CTEVT, Kathmandu-44600, Nepal ,
3- Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun-248001, Uttarakhand, India
Abstract: (6041 Views)
Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus Shaw), one of four species of bear found on the Indian sub-continent, has a geographical distribution across Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka. It is listed as Vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species due to the rapid decline of the global population. This decrease in Melursus ursinus presents a need for comprehensive research to predict and understand the distribution pattern. The present study predicts the habitat suitability and distribution pattern of M. ursinus in the Chitwan National Park, Nepal and its buffer areas. The entire study area was divided into 4 X 4 km grids. Within each grid, 10-meter radius plots were sampled for bear signs and habitat evaluation occurred at every 250 meters along a transect (1–1.5 km). Data on direct and indirect signs (diggings, pugmarks, scrapes, and scats) and other habitat use parameters of M. ursinus were collected. The study was carried out during the dry season (January to March 2019) in almost 57 grids of the study area. The calculated habitat suitability for M. ursinus determined that 25% of the total area was suitable, and the remaining 75% was less suitable habitat. Drainage, followed by slope and elevation, were found to be the important variables affecting the distribution of species in the study area and this model was found to be 88.5% accurate in terms of explaining the dependent variables. The findings of the present research will be useful for park managers, researchers, and academicians in the formulation of an appropriate conservation plan for this charismatic mammal species.
Type of Study: Original Research Article |
Subject:
Ecological Diversity
Received: 2022/06/5 | Accepted: 2022/09/15 | Published: 2022/09/30
Received: 2022/06/5 | Accepted: 2022/09/15 | Published: 2022/09/30
References
1. Acharya, K. P., Shrestha, S., Paudel, P. K., Sherpa, A. P., Jnawali, S. R., Acharya, S. and Bista, D. (2018). Pervasive human disturbance on habitats of endangered red panda Ailurus fulgens in the central Himalaya. Global Ecology and Conservation, 15, e00420. [DOI:10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00420]
2. Athreya, V., Navya, R., Punjabi, G. A., Linnell, J. D., Odden, M., Khetarpal, S. and Karanth, K. U. (2014). Movement and activity pattern of a collared tigress in a human-dominated landscape in central India. Tropical Conservation Science, 7 (1): 75-86. [DOI:10.1177/194008291400700111]
3. Athreya, V., Odden, M., Linnell, J. D., Krishnaswamy, J. and Karanth, U. (2013). Big cats in our backyards: persistence of large carnivores in a human dominated landscape in India. PloS One, 8 (3): e57872. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0057872] [PMID] [PMCID]
4. Bargali, H. S., Akhtar, N. and Chauhan, N. P. S. (2004). Feeding Ecology of Sloth Bears in a Disturbed Area in Central India. Ursus, 15: 212-17. [DOI:10.2192/1537-6176(2004)0152.0.CO;2]
5. Bargali, H. S., Akhtar, N. and Chauhan, N. P. S. (2012). The sloth bear activity and movement in highly fragmented and disturbed habitat in central India. World Journal of Zoology, 7 (4): 312-319.
6. Bauer, E., Babitz, M., Boedeker, N. and Hellmuth, H. (2013). Approaches to understanding and managing pacing in sloth bears in a zoological setting. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 26: 53-74. [DOI:10.46867/ijcp.2013.26.01.04]
7. Buermann, W., Saatchi, S., Smith, T. B., Zutta, B. R., Chaves, J. A., Milá, B. and Graham, C. H. (2008). Predicting species distributions across the Amazonian and Andean regions using remote sensing data. Journal of Biogeography, 35 (7), 1160-1176. [DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01858.x]
8. Byeon, D. H., Jung, S. and Lee, W. H. (2018). Review of CLIMEX and MaxEnt for studying species distribution in South Korea. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 11 (3): 325-333. [DOI:10.1016/j.japb.2018.06.002]
9. Dharaiya, N. (2009). Evaluating habitat and human-bear conflicts in North Gujarat, India, to seek solutions for human-bear coexistence. Research Project Report I-submitted to the Small Grants Division, Rufford Foundation, London, England, UK.
10. Dharaiya, N., Bargali, H. S. and Sharp, T. (2016). Melursus ursinus. The IUCN red list of threatened species 2016: e. T13143A45033815.
11. Elith, J. and Leathwick, J. R. (2009). Species distribution models: ecological explanation and prediction across space and time. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 40 (1): 677-697. [DOI:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.110308.120159]
12. Elith, J., Phillips, S. J., Hastie, T., Dudík, M., Chee, Y. E. and Yates, C. J. (2011). A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Diversity and Distributions, 17 (1): 43-57. [DOI:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00725.x]
13. Franklin, J. (2010). Mapping species distributions: spatial inference and prediction. Cambridge University Press. 318 pp. [DOI:10.1017/CBO9780511810602]
14. Franklin, J. (2010). Moving beyond static species distribution models in support of conservation biogeography. Diversity and Distributions, 16 (3): 321-330. [DOI:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00641.x]
15. Garshelis, D. L. (2022). Understanding species-habitat associations: A case study with the World's Bears. Land, 11 (2): 180. [DOI:10.3390/land11020180]
16. Garshelis, D. L., Joshi, A. R. and Rice, C. G. (1999a). Sloth bear conservation action plan. In Bears: Status survey and conservation action plan. C Servheen and Peyton, B (eds) IUCN/SSC bear and polar bear specialist groups. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
17. Garshelis, D. L., Ratnayeke, S. and Chauhan, N. P. S. (2008). Melursus ursinus, In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Version 2012.2. www.iucnredlist.org., Accessed on 6 May 2022.
18. Ghimire, D. and Thapa, T. B. (2014). Distribution and habitat preference of sloth bear in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Journal of Natural History Museum, 28: 9-17. [DOI:10.3126/jnhm.v28i0.14163]
19. Guisan, A. and Zimmermann, N. E. (2000). Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological modelling, 135 (2-3): 147-186. [DOI:10.1016/S0304-3800(00)00354-9]
20. Haghani, A., Aliabadian, M., Sarhangzadeh, J. and Setoodeh, A. (2016). Seasonal habitat suitability modeling and factors affecting the distribution of Asian Houbara in East Iran. Heliyon, 2 (8): e00142. [DOI:10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00142] [PMID] [PMCID]
21. Hijmans, R. J. and Graham, C. H. (2006). The ability of climate envelope models to predict the effect of climate change on species distributions. Global Change Biology, 12 (12): 2272-2281. [DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01256.x]
22. Hines, J. E., Nichols, J. D., Royle, J. A., MacKenzie, D. I., Gopalaswamy, A. M., Kumar, N. S. and Karanth, K. U. (2010). Tigers on trails: occupancy modeling for cluster sampling. Ecological Applications, 20 (5): 1456-1466. [DOI:10.1890/09-0321.1] [PMID]
23. Ivlev, V. S. (1961). Experimental ecology of the feeding of fishes. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA. 302 pp.
24. Jena, S. and Nandi, D. (2017). Using Maximum Entropy Modeling to delineate the distribution patterns of Sloth bear (Melursus Ursinus) in Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha India. International Journal of Current Advanced Research, 6 (6): 4226-4231.
25. Jnawali, S. R., Baral, H. S., Lee, S., Acharya, K. P., Upadhyay, G. P., Pandey, M. and Amin, R. (2011). The Status of Nepal's Mammals: The National Red List Series-IUCN. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation: Kathmandu, Nepal. 70 pp.
26. Johnsingh, A. J. T. (2003). Bear conservation in India. Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, 100 (2-3): 190-201.
27. Joshi, A. R., Garshelis, D. L. and Smith, J. D. L. (1995). Home range of Sloth bear in Nepal. Implication for conservation. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 59 (2): 204-214. [DOI:10.2307/3808932]
28. Joshi, A. R., Garshelis, D. L. and Smith, J. D. L. (1997). Seasonal and habitat related diets of Sloth Bear in Nepal. Journal of Mammalogy, 78 (2): 584-597. [DOI:10.2307/1382910]
29. Joshi, A. R., Smith, J. L. and Garshelis, D. L. (1999). Sociobiology of the myrmecophagous sloth bear in Nepal. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77 (11): 1690-1704. [DOI:10.1139/z99-131]
30. Joshi, R. and Singh, R. (2008). Feeding behaviour of wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the Rajaji National Park. The Journal of American Science, 4 (2): 34-48.
31. Khanal, S and Thapa,T B. (2014). Feeding ecology of Sloth Bears in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, 19 (2): 118-122. [DOI:10.3126/jist.v19i2.13864]
32. Khosravi, R., Hemami, M. R., Malekian, M., Flint, A. and Flint, L. (2016). Maxent modeling for predicting potential distribution of goitered gazelle in central Iran: the effect of extent and grain size on performance of the model. Turkish Journal of Zoology, 40 (4): 574-585. [DOI:10.3906/zoo-1505-38]
33. Kumar, S. and Stohlgren, T. J. (2009). Maxent modeling for predicting suitable habitat for threatened and endangered tree Canacomyrica monticola in New Caledonia. Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment, 1 (4): 094-098.
34. Kumar, S., Spaulding, S. A., Stohlgren, T. J., Hermann, K. A., Schmidt, T. S. and Bahls, L. L. (2009). Potential habitat distribution for the freshwater diatom Didymosphenia geminata in the continental US. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7 (8): 415-420. [DOI:10.1890/080054]
35. Lewis, A., Stein, J. L., Stein, J. A., Nix, H. A., Mackey, B. G. and Bowyer, J. K. (1991). An assessment of regional conservation adequacy: Tasmania. Resource Assessment Commission Forest and Timber Inquiry Consultancy Series Number FTC91/17.
36. Merow, C., Smith, M. J. and Silander Jr, J. A. (2013). A practical guide to MaxEnt for modeling species' distributions: what it does, and why inputs and settings matter. Ecography, 36 (10): 1058-1069. [DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.07872.x]
37. Norton, T. W., McKenney, D. W. and Watt, W. R. (1992). A biophysical process approach to wildlife modelling in forestry. Conference Proceedings GIS'92, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1-7.
38. Nugraha, R., Andriyani, A. A. and Marliana, S. N. (2021). Habitat use and diet of the bear cuscus Ailurops ursinus (Temminck, 1824) in various forest ecosystem types in South Sulawesi. In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 948, No. 1, p. 012033). IOP Publishing. [DOI:10.1088/1755-1315/948/1/012033]
39. Odum, E. P. (1996). Fundamentals of ecology. Nataraj Publishers, Dehradun, India (3rd edition) 574 pp.
40. Padalia, H., Srivastava, V. and Kushwaha, S. P. S. (2014). Modeling potential invasion range of alien invasive species, Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit. in India: Comparison of MaxEnt and GARP. Ecological Informatics, 22: 36-43. [DOI:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.04.002]
41. Patrick, C. (2014). Does increasing available non-tax economic development incentives result in more jobs? National Tax Journal, 67(2): 351-386. [DOI:10.17310/ntj.2014.2.03]
42. Paudel, R. P., Kadariya, R., Lamichhane, B. R., Subedi, N., Sashika, M., Shimozuru, M. and Tsubota, T. (2022). Habitat occupancy of sloth bear Melursus ursinus in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Ecology and Evolution, 12 (3), e8699. [DOI:10.1002/ece3.8699] [PMID] [PMCID]
43. Pearson, R. G. (2007). Species' distribution modeling for conservation educators and practitioners. Synthesis. American Museum of Natural History, 50: 54-89.
44. Pearson, R. G. and Dawson, T. P. (2003). Predicting the impacts of climate change on the distribution of species: are bioclimate envelope models useful? Global ecology and biogeography, 12 (5): 361-371. [DOI:10.1046/j.1466-822X.2003.00042.x]
45. Philip, R., Bhatnagar, C. and Koli, V. K. (2021). Feeding ecology of the vulnerable sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) in and around Mount Abu wildlife sanctuary, Rajasthan, India. International Journal of Environmental Studies, 79 (4): 651-661. [DOI:10.1080/00207233.2021.1941668]
46. Phillips, S. J. and Dudík, M. (2008). Modeling of species distributions with Maxent: new extensions and a comprehensive evaluation. Ecography, 31 (2): 161-175. [DOI:10.1111/j.0906-7590.2008.5203.x]
47. Phillips, S. J., Anderson, R. P. and Schapire, R. E. (2006). Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling, 190 (3-4): 231-259. [DOI:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026]
48. Phillips, S. J., Dudík, M. and Schapire, R. E. (2004). A maximum entropy approach to species distribution modeling. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-first International Conference on Machine learning (p. 83). [DOI:10.1145/1015330.1015412] [PMID]
49. Pun, S., Joshi, R., Subedi, R., Bhattarai, S. and Poudel, B. (2022). Geospatial analysis of habitat suitability for Greater One-horned Rhino Rhinoceros unicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) in Central lowlands of Nepal using MaxEnt Model. Borneo Journal of Resource Science and Technology, 12 (1): 166-176. [DOI:10.33736/bjrst.4422.2022]
50. Rathore, B. C. (2008). Ecology of brown bear (Ursus arctos) with special reference to assessment of human-brown bear conflicts in Kugti Wildlife Sanctuary, Himachal Pradesh and mitigation strategies. Ph.D. thesis. Saurashtra University, India.
51. Ripley, B. D. (2007). Pattern recognition and neural networks. Cambridge University Press. 416 pp.
52. Sadadev, B. M., Silwal, T., Dhami, B., Thapa, N., Neupane, B., Rana, A. and Singh, H. B. (2021). Do grassland burning practices affect the distribution of the Hispid hare, Caprolagus hispidus (Pearson, 1839)? A study at the Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal. Journal of Animal Diversity, 3 (3): 86-92. [DOI:10.52547/JAD.2021.3.3.7]
53. Servhee, C. (1990). The status and conservation of the bears of the world. International Conference on Bear Research and Management Monogram Series No. 2. TD Mock and Associates Inc., Victoria, British Columbia. Victoria, 2. 32 pp.
54. Shankwar, R., Bhandari, M. S., Meena, R. K. and Ginwal, H. S. (2017). Maxent modeling of Myrica esculenta for estimating geographical distribution in Kumaun Himalayas, Uttarakhand. In: Proceedings of 38th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing. The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi. 23rd-27th October (Volume 740., pp. 1-8).
55. Skevington, S. M., Lotfy, M. and O'Connell, K. A. (2004). The World Health Organization's WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment: psychometric properties and results of the international field trial. A report from the WHOQOL group. Quality of Life Research, 13 (2): 299-310. [DOI:10.1023/B:QURE.0000018486.91360.00] [PMID]
56. Stræde, S. and Helles, F. (2000). Park-people conflict resolution in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal: buying time at high cost? Environmental Conservation, 27 (4): 368-381. [DOI:10.1017/S0376892900000424]
57. Thapa, K. (2014). Ecology of Tigers in Churia Habitat and a non-invasive genetic approach to Tiger Conservation in Terai Arc, Nepal. Ph.D. thesis, Virginia Tech.
58. Tinoco, B. A., Graham, C. H., Aguilar, J. M. and Schleuning, M. (2017). Effects of hummingbird morphology on specialization in pollination networks vary with resource availability. Oikos, 126 (1): 52-60. [DOI:10.1111/oik.02998]
59. Wang, R., Li, Q., He, S., Liu, Y., Wang, M. and Jiang, G. (2018). Modeling and mapping the current and future distribution of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae under climate change in China. PloS ONE, 13 (2): e0192153. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0192153] [PMID] [PMCID]
60. Wang, Y., Lu, Z., Sheng, Y. and Zhou, Y. (2020). Remote sensing applications in monitoring of protected areas. Remote Sensing, 12 (9): 1370. [DOI:10.3390/rs12091370]
61. Warren, D. L. and Seifert, S. N. (2011). Ecological niche modeling in Maxent: the importance of model complexity and the performance of model selection criteria. Ecological Applications, 21 (2): 335-342. [DOI:10.1890/10-1171.1] [PMID]
62. Western, D., Russell, S. and Cuthill, I. (2009). The status of wildlife in protected areas compared to non-protected areas of Kenya. PloS ONE, 4 (7): e6140. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0006140] [PMID] [PMCID]
63. Wilson, S. K., Graham, N. A., Pratchett, M. S., Jones, G. P. and Polunin, N. V. (2006). Multiple disturbances and the global degradation of coral reefs: are reef fishes at risk or resilient?. Global Change Biology, 12 (11): 2220-2234. [DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01252.x]
Send email to the article author
| Rights and permissions | |
 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
| Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb