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Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India

The snow leopard Panthera uncia is an elusive species inhabiting some of the most remote and inaccessible tracts of Central and South Asia. It is difficult to determine its distribution and density pattern, which are crucial for developing conservation strategies. Several techniques for species dete...

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Autores principales: Watts, Sophie M., McCarthy, Thomas M., Namgail, Tsewang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350993/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30695083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211509
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author Watts, Sophie M.
McCarthy, Thomas M.
Namgail, Tsewang
author_facet Watts, Sophie M.
McCarthy, Thomas M.
Namgail, Tsewang
author_sort Watts, Sophie M.
collection PubMed
description The snow leopard Panthera uncia is an elusive species inhabiting some of the most remote and inaccessible tracts of Central and South Asia. It is difficult to determine its distribution and density pattern, which are crucial for developing conservation strategies. Several techniques for species detection combining camera traps with remote sensing and geographic information systems have been developed to model the habitat of such cryptic and low-density species in challenging terrains. Utilising presence-only data from camera traps and direct observations, alongside six environmental variables (elevation, aspect, ruggedness, distance to water, land cover, and prey habitat suitability), we assessed snow leopard habitat suitability across Ladakh in northern India. This is the first study to model snow leopard distribution both in India and utilising direct observation data. Results suggested that elevation and ruggedness are the two most influential environmental variables for snow leopard habitat suitability, with highly suitable habitat having an elevation range of 2,800 m to 4,600 m and ruggedness of 450 m to 1,800 m. Our habitat suitability map estimated approximately 12% of Ladakh's geographical area (c. 90,000 km(2)) as highly suitable and 18% as medium suitability. We found that 62.5% of recorded livestock depredation along with over half of all livestock corrals (54%) and homestays (58%) occurred within highly suitable snow leopard habitat. Our habitat suitability model can be used to assist in allocation of conservation resources by targeting construction of livestock corrals to areas of high habitat suitability and promoting ecotourism programs in villages in highly suitable snow leopard habitat.
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spelling pubmed-63509932019-02-15 Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India Watts, Sophie M. McCarthy, Thomas M. Namgail, Tsewang PLoS One Research Article The snow leopard Panthera uncia is an elusive species inhabiting some of the most remote and inaccessible tracts of Central and South Asia. It is difficult to determine its distribution and density pattern, which are crucial for developing conservation strategies. Several techniques for species detection combining camera traps with remote sensing and geographic information systems have been developed to model the habitat of such cryptic and low-density species in challenging terrains. Utilising presence-only data from camera traps and direct observations, alongside six environmental variables (elevation, aspect, ruggedness, distance to water, land cover, and prey habitat suitability), we assessed snow leopard habitat suitability across Ladakh in northern India. This is the first study to model snow leopard distribution both in India and utilising direct observation data. Results suggested that elevation and ruggedness are the two most influential environmental variables for snow leopard habitat suitability, with highly suitable habitat having an elevation range of 2,800 m to 4,600 m and ruggedness of 450 m to 1,800 m. Our habitat suitability map estimated approximately 12% of Ladakh's geographical area (c. 90,000 km(2)) as highly suitable and 18% as medium suitability. We found that 62.5% of recorded livestock depredation along with over half of all livestock corrals (54%) and homestays (58%) occurred within highly suitable snow leopard habitat. Our habitat suitability model can be used to assist in allocation of conservation resources by targeting construction of livestock corrals to areas of high habitat suitability and promoting ecotourism programs in villages in highly suitable snow leopard habitat. Public Library of Science 2019-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6350993/ /pubmed/30695083 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211509 Text en © 2019 Watts et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Watts, Sophie M.
McCarthy, Thomas M.
Namgail, Tsewang
Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title_full Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title_fullStr Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title_full_unstemmed Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title_short Modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Ladakh, India
title_sort modelling potential habitat for snow leopards (panthera uncia) in ladakh, india
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350993/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30695083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211509
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