Read a research from Environment Protection and Study Center (ENPROSC)’s team member Mr. Chandramani Aryal,  published in the Journal ‘Journal of Environment Science’ a journal published by Government of Nepal MoFE’s Department of Environment in 2020. The research highlights mammalian carnivore and their occupancy in regions outside of protected areas in Nepal.  Read an abstract below or click on the provided link to redirect to the main article.

Nepal, despite being rich in mammalian carnivore species, the studies on ecological aspects are limited in scope and number in areas outside protected area system, particularly Chure region vastly under explored. Thus, this study was conducted to estimate the occupancy of carnivores in the Triyuga Forest in eastern part of Nepal. For the study purpose, the area was divided into the girds of 3*3 sq. km selecting 30 grids randomly excluding the grids with less than 50% coverage inside the study area boundary. In each grid, a Six km transect was surveyed for carnivore signs and potential factors influencing their presence and detection, considering each segment of one km as a spatial replicate. The data was analyzed using Presence software and unmarked package in R using standard occupancy framework. Carnivore occupancy was found to be governed by the canopy cover viz. higher occupancy in the high canopy cover areas with and low in the low cover areas. The influence of cover can be interpreted as influence on prey species. In the study area, as forest cover is gradually decreasing, forest enhancement interventions are recommended.

Click here to redirect to read full text of the article.