Land sharing is essential for snow leopard conservation

Johansson, Örjan; Rauset, Geir Rune; Samelius, Gustaf; McCarthy, Tom; Andrén, Henrik; Tumursukh, Lkhagvasumberel; Mishra, Charudutt

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.034

Cited by 103 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Nonetheless, there was evidence for transient dispersal between each of these areas suggesting that the smaller massifs act as stepping stones for migration between larger habitat patches. Long distance movements have been observed among radio and GPS-collared snow leopards in Mongolia (McCarthy et al 2005;Johansson et al 2016). In the southern portion of Tibetan Plateau there was connectivity with the Himalaya, consistent with snow leopard habitat models Li et al 2016b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although snow leopards prefer high-altitude mountainous habitat (e.g., Himalaya, Pamir, Alay, Kunlun, Tian Shan) (Hemmer 1972), they also occur in lower, isolated massifs (e.g., Tost and Noyon Uul in the southern Mongolia, Janecka et al 2011a;Johansson et al 2016) and have been observed moving through flat or rolling terrain (Schaller 1998;McCarthy et al 2005;Johansson et al 2016). However, limited information is available on the level of connectivity among snow leopard populations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The endangered snow leopard is a flagship species for Asia, the largest carnivore in its high-altitude communities, and yet is under substantial threat throughout its range (Jackson et al 2010;Rosen and Zeller 2016). Research on distribution (Jackson et al 2006, Janecka et al 2008, 2011aMcCarthy et al 2008;Lovari et al 2009;Karmacharya et al 2011;Alexander et al 2016), ecology (Jackson and Ahlborn 1989;McCarthy et al 2005;Anwar et al 2011;Lovari et al 2013;Johansson et al 2016;Chetri et al 2017), adaptation to high-altitude (Cho et al 2013;Janecka et al 2015), and conservation (Hussain 2000;Mishra et al 2003;Jackson and Wangchuk 2004;Rosen et al 2012;Li et al 2014;Kachel et al 2016) has provided many insights into snow leopard abundance, habitat use, behavior, movement patterns, and feeding ecology that are important for guiding conservation and management actions needed to ensure its persistence.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Range-Wide Snow Leopard Phylogeography Supports Three Subspecies

Janečka

Zhang

et al. 2017

Journal of Heredity

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The snow leopard, Panthera uncia, is an elusive high-altitude specialist that inhabits vast, inaccessible habitat across Asia. We conducted the first range-wide genetic assessment of snow leopards based on noninvasive scat surveys. Thirty-three microsatellites were genotyped and a total of 683 bp of mitochondrial DNA sequenced in 70 individuals. Snow leopards exhibited low genetic diversity at microsatellites (A N = 5.8, H O = 0.433, H E = 0.568), virtually no mtDNA variation, and underwent a bottleneck in the Holocene (∼8000 years ago) coinciding with increased temperatures, precipitation, and upward treeline shift in the Tibetan Plateau. Multiple analyses supported 3 primary genetic clusters: (1) Northern (the Altai region), (2) Central (core Himalaya

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Range-Wide Snow Leopard Phylogeography Supports Three Subspecies

Janečka

Zhang

et al. 2017

Journal of Heredity

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“…The wide-ranging nature of large carnivores produces an overlap between their distributions and human-modified areas (Johansson et al, 2016;Sanderson, Redford, Vedder, Coppolillo, & Ward, 2002), potentially posing threats to human lives and livelihoods. This may lead to carnivore population declines and loss of community support for conservation (Treves & Karanth, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land‐sharing potential of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes of western India

Majgaonkar

Vaidyanathan²,

Srivathsa

et al. 2019

Conservat Sci and Prac

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The current protected area (PA) network is not sufficient to ensure long‐term persistence of wide‐ranging carnivore populations. Within India, this is particularly the case for species that inhabit nonforested areas since PAs disproportionately over‐represent forested ecosystems. With growing consideration of human‐use landscapes as potential habitats for adaptable large carnivores, India provides a model for studying them in densely populated landscapes, where there is little understanding about human‐carnivore interactions in shared spaces. Using key informant interviews and an occupancy modeling framework, we assessed the distribution of three large carnivore species, the leopard Panthera pardus, Indian grey Wolf Canis lupus pallipes, and striped hyena Hyaena hyaena, across a ~89,000 km2 semiarid multiuse landscape in western India, and quantified ecological drivers of their presence. The three species occupied 57% (leopard), 64% (wolf), and 75% (hyena) of the landscape of which only 2.6% area is protected as national parks or wildlife sanctuaries. The presence of the three carnivores was differentially favored by certain types of agriculture, while populations of domestic livestock supported them in this landscape with low densities of large wild prey. Our results demonstrate the adaptability of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes, and we call for an expansion of the current conservation narratives that currently focus on forested PAs, to include the high potential that anthropogenic landscapes offer as habitats where people and predators can co‐adapt and persist.

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“…The spatiotemporal availability of resources is an important factor that affects animal movement and the configuration and size of UDs. Ranging patterns of large carnivores are influenced by intrinsic factors such as age and sex (Johansson et al 2016, Morato et al 2016 or extrinsic factors including resource availability (Allen et al 2016, Johansson et al 2018, topographic features (Powell and Mitchell 1998) and population density (Cooper 1978, Benson et al 2006.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical relief facilitates spatial segregation of a high density large carnivore population

Farhadinia

Heit

Montgomery

et al. 2019

Oikos

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Quantifying the distribution and size of home ranges is critical for understanding animal spatial dynamics. This is particularly important for large carnivores in fragmented landscapes. Most studies that estimate home range consider only a bivariate frequency distribution represented by a two‐dimensional planimetric surface. The underlying assumption of these approaches is that the animals inhabit landscapes that are completely flat. Of course, this is rarely the case. Here we investigated the influence of vertical relief and three‐dimensional landscape features on the home range patterns of a high density carnivore. Via GPS telemetry‐tracking of a population of Persian leopards Panthera pardus saxicolor (n = 6), and globally‐available digital elevation models (DEMs), we calculated the surface area of home ranges in comparison to traditional planimetric estimates. We also investigated predation patterns of leopards across elevation gradients using GPS location data and kill site analysis. The topographic measurements exceeded planimetric estimates by up to 38% which suggests that planimetric modeling underestimates home range size, particularly when animals inhabit variable terrain. We also observed that resident leopards exhibit significant altitudinal partitioning of predation, suggesting that leopards that have overlapping home ranges may still utilize exclusive hunting territories. We discuss the ways in which planimetric approaches may be underestimating aspects of animal ranging behavior and ecology. We conclude that topography should be considered, not as an ancillary metric, but as an important aspect of home range calculation. Our approach can enhance understanding of spatial requirements, population density, intra‐guild sympatric competition and conflict management of large felids inhabiting rugged landscapes.

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Land sharing is essential for snow leopard conservation

Cited by 103 publications

References 35 publications

Range-Wide Snow Leopard Phylogeography Supports Three Subspecies

Range-Wide Snow Leopard Phylogeography Supports Three Subspecies

Land‐sharing potential of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes of western India

Vertical relief facilitates spatial segregation of a high density large carnivore population

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