A first photographic record of a Yellow-bellied Weasel Mustela kathiah Hodgson, 1835 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mustelidae) from western Nepal

Abstract

One live and another dead Yellow-bellied Weasel were spotted at an altitude of 2,190m and 3,078m, respectively, in Lamsung, Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality, Myagdi and Barekot Rural Municipality, Jajarkot on 1 May 2016 and 16 June 2016 in the afternoon. This is probably the first record of the species with photographs in Myagdi District of Gandaki Province, and in Jajarkot District of Karnali Province, western Nepal.

Distribution updates of the yellow-bellied weasel Mustela kathiah in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

“…Thus, to our knowledge, our sighting is significant because it is the second highest elevation record in Nepal, and the first for a living species. In addition, our observations and the available literatures (Ghimire & Acharya 2012; Katuwal et al 2018;Baral et al 2019a, b) show that the yellow-bellied weasel mostly prefers Nepal's mid-hills region, i.e. sub-tropical to the temperate regions.…”

“…We confirmed the highest elevation record for the yellow-bellied weasel in Kathmandu Valley (Phulchowki Hill, elevation = 2710 m), and the second highest for Nepal. The Yellowbellied weasel was thought to be distributed between 1000 and 2000 m (Baral & Shah 2008;Jnawali et al 2011), but Baral et al (2019a) recorded a live individual at 2190 m asl and a dead individual at 3078 m asl in Myagdi and Jajarkot districts, respectively while Ghimire & Acharya (2012) at 2457 m asl in buffer zone of Makalu Barun National Park. Thus, to our knowledge, our sighting is significant because it is the second highest elevation record in Nepal, and the first for a living species.…”

“…There are a few occurrence records of yellowbellied weasel in Nepal (Fig. 1); the available information is primarily from protected areas such as Annapurna Conservation Area, Sagarmatha National Park, and Makalu Barun National Park (Jnawali et al 2011) and a few outside protected areas such as Kathmandu, Ilam, Myagdi, and Jajarkot (Baral et al 2019a;Katuwal et al 2018). It is listed as Data Deficient in the National Red List assessment (Amin et al 2018;Jnawali et al 2011), but as Least Concern in the global IUCN Red List assessment (Willcox et al 2016).…”

“…It is listed as Data Deficient in the National Red List assessment (Amin et al 2018;Jnawali et al 2011), but as Least Concern in the global IUCN Red List assessment (Willcox et al 2016). It is typically observed between 1000 and 3100 m in subtropical and temperate forests of Nepal (Baral et al 2019a;Jnawali et al 2011).…”

New locality record of crab-eating mongoose Herpestes urva (Hodgson, 1836) from Parbat District of Nepal

“…Intensive research activities focusing on small carnivores are often neglected in Nepal (Baral et al 2019). Among small carnivores, scientific studies on mongooses are very limited, and very little specific information is known about the C-eM in Nepal (Sharma & Lamichhane 2017).…”