IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Leopard Project Team of WWF-Pakistan Nathiagali Office, | |
| Preliminary study to know leopard population in and around Ayubia National Park | |
| 2007 Full Book | |
The present document is an outcome of a two year study, aimed to estimate the leopard population in and around the Ayubia National Park (ANP). Spread over an area 3,312ha, the park supports a variety of wildlife, including Common leopard. To know about its current status and the environment that it lives in, scientific studies are needed. Due to technical and financial constraints, however, no such studies could be so far. The present study is the first of its kind to estimate the population of common leopard. Two different methodologies were used to do so: (i) sighting record information documentation from villages; and (ii) pugmark survey. Leopards were sighted in 175 locations over an area of 115.27km2. Sighting records remained higher from May to August. Similarly, sighting in villages were higher than in the forest. Bulk of the sighting was recorded in morning and evening and fewer in the afternoon. In 2006, cubs with mother were sighted at four different locations in the study area. Ten fixed monitoring tracks (covering 151.5km) were surveyed twice to get the _mean encounter rate _for leopard scats, footprints, livestock and people seen in the area. Analysis revealed that all the tracks were frequently used during April-May. As such, more than 40 tacks were traced. After data analysis, only eleven (11) tracks were identified as individual leopards. Species occupancy rate will be calculated with the help of PRESENCE software once the third survey results are available. During the last two years, four leopards were reported to have been killed by the local communities. |
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