IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Khanal, G. | |
| Effects of ecological and anthropogenic factors on occupancy pattern of Royal Bengal tiger (_Panthera tigris tigris_): A case study from Bardiya National Park and its adjoining Khata Corridor | |
| 2016 Full Book | |
The decline of Royal Bengal Tiger _(Panthera tigris tigris_) population throughout its range and confinement of its breeding populations into few fragmented protected areas typifies the challenges of maintaining forest ecosystems for multiple ecosystem goods and services for human well-being. Addressing the challenges associated with the recovery of depleted tiger populations in human dominated landscapes requires a holistic understanding of how different ecological (prey and habitat) and anthropogenic (human disturbance and management interventions) affect tiger distribution at multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, our understanding f the influence of ecological and anthropogenic factors on tiger occurrences is limited, and so is our ability to inform and practice evidence-based conservation. In this study, I assessed the effects of grassland availability and other ecological and anthropogenic covariates on occupancy (habitat use) patterns of Royal Bengal Tiger as a case study from the Bardiya National Park and its adjoining Khata Forest Corridor, western Terai Nepal. Detection and non-detection survey of tiger signs (pugmark and scrapes) was conducted along forest trails in 5ž5 km2 sampling grids (n=58) where prey availability and human disturbance per kilometer (transect) were recorded as habitat variables. The proportion of grassland habitat within each grid cell was extracted by using MODIS land cover maps (MCD12Q1) in QGIS 2.12.1-Lyon. Plausible occupancy models were run in PRESENCE ver. 10.4 to test a priori research hypotheses about influence of prey availability, human disturbance and proportion of grassland habitat on habitat use pattern of tigers. As hypothesized, higher probability of tiger occurrence was found in those grids where prey availability and proportion of interspersed grassland habitat area were high (ƒprey =1.02 & ƒgrassland =0.19), regardless of their protection regimes (protected area or multiple use forest corridor). In contrast, low occupancy was found in grids that existed along the boundary of park and corridor (ƒHumDist = -0.23). Multiple use forests (e.g., forest corridor) with low human disturbance and high-interspersed forest-grassland mosaic habitats have the higher potentiality to complement existing protected areas from the tiger conservation perspective. Grassland management activities should be prioritized to increase the carrying capacity of the Tarai-protected areas and multi-use forests for wild prey base for tigers. |
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