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Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal

Anthropogenic pressures in human‐dominated landscapes often contribute to wildlife mortality. Carnivores are especially vulnerable to human‐induced mortality due to the perceived threat to livestock and humans. Despite having widespread conservation implications, carnivore mortality data have been l...

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Autores principales: Adhikari, Binaya, Baral, Kedar, Bhandari, Shivish, Szydlowski, Michelle, Kunwar, Ripu M., Panthi, Saroj, Neupane, Bijaya, Koirala, Raj Kumar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8809436/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35136552
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8491
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author Adhikari, Binaya
Baral, Kedar
Bhandari, Shivish
Szydlowski, Michelle
Kunwar, Ripu M.
Panthi, Saroj
Neupane, Bijaya
Koirala, Raj Kumar
author_facet Adhikari, Binaya
Baral, Kedar
Bhandari, Shivish
Szydlowski, Michelle
Kunwar, Ripu M.
Panthi, Saroj
Neupane, Bijaya
Koirala, Raj Kumar
author_sort Adhikari, Binaya
collection PubMed
description Anthropogenic pressures in human‐dominated landscapes often contribute to wildlife mortality. Carnivores are especially vulnerable to human‐induced mortality due to the perceived threat to livestock and humans. Despite having widespread conservation implications, carnivore mortality data have been largely underutilized within Nepal. This study utilized Maxent to identify high‐risk areas and explore the contribution of habitat attributes associated with carnivore mortality using the casualty database within the Gandaki province of central Nepal. We categorized the risk to carnivore species in three taxonomic groups, Felid, Viverridae, and Herpestidae, and identified a 3704‐km(2) area within the province at high risk for carnivore casualty. The middle mountains were the riskiest physiographic zone, and the Annapurna Conservation Area represented the largest risk zone among the four protected areas. Agricultural land was the most problematic area in terms of carnivore casualty. The human population was positively associated with high‐risk areas and the number of casualties, whereas protected area cover had a negative association. This study identified that the common leopard was at the highest risk of mortality and therefore would benefit from the implementation of an action plan and species‐specific conservation strategies, especially within identified high‐risk zones. An expansion of protected areas in the middle mountain region would serve to greatly reduce carnivore casualty. Species distribution modeling can be further used with national‐level spatial and temporal mortality data to identify the most prominent casualty times and pinpoint potential casualty locations throughout the country.
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spelling pubmed-88094362022-02-07 Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal Adhikari, Binaya Baral, Kedar Bhandari, Shivish Szydlowski, Michelle Kunwar, Ripu M. Panthi, Saroj Neupane, Bijaya Koirala, Raj Kumar Ecol Evol Research Articles Anthropogenic pressures in human‐dominated landscapes often contribute to wildlife mortality. Carnivores are especially vulnerable to human‐induced mortality due to the perceived threat to livestock and humans. Despite having widespread conservation implications, carnivore mortality data have been largely underutilized within Nepal. This study utilized Maxent to identify high‐risk areas and explore the contribution of habitat attributes associated with carnivore mortality using the casualty database within the Gandaki province of central Nepal. We categorized the risk to carnivore species in three taxonomic groups, Felid, Viverridae, and Herpestidae, and identified a 3704‐km(2) area within the province at high risk for carnivore casualty. The middle mountains were the riskiest physiographic zone, and the Annapurna Conservation Area represented the largest risk zone among the four protected areas. Agricultural land was the most problematic area in terms of carnivore casualty. The human population was positively associated with high‐risk areas and the number of casualties, whereas protected area cover had a negative association. This study identified that the common leopard was at the highest risk of mortality and therefore would benefit from the implementation of an action plan and species‐specific conservation strategies, especially within identified high‐risk zones. An expansion of protected areas in the middle mountain region would serve to greatly reduce carnivore casualty. Species distribution modeling can be further used with national‐level spatial and temporal mortality data to identify the most prominent casualty times and pinpoint potential casualty locations throughout the country. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8809436/ /pubmed/35136552 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8491 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Adhikari, Binaya
Baral, Kedar
Bhandari, Shivish
Szydlowski, Michelle
Kunwar, Ripu M.
Panthi, Saroj
Neupane, Bijaya
Koirala, Raj Kumar
Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title_full Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title_fullStr Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title_short Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal
title_sort potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in gandaki province, nepal
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8809436/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35136552
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8491
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