Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan: a hot spot for wild felids

Abstract

The non-uniformity of the distribution of biodiversity makes allocation of the limited resources available for conservation of biodiversity a difficult task. Approaches such as biodiversity hotspot identification, endemic bird areas, crisis ecoregions, global 200 ecoregions, and the Last of the Wild are used by scientists and international conservation agencies to prioritize conservation efforts. As part of the biodiverse Eastern Himalayan region, Bhutan has been identified as a conservation priority area by all these different approaches, yet data validating these assessments are limited. To examine whether Bhutan is a biodiversity hot spot for a key taxonomic group, we conducted camera trapping in the lower foothills of Bhutan, in Royal Manas National Park, from November 2010 to February 2011. We recorded six species of wild felids of which five are listed on the IUCN Red List: tiger Panthera tigris, golden cat Pardofelis temminckii, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa and common leopard Panthera pardus. Our study area of 74 km 2 has c. 16% of felid species, confirming Bhutan as a biodiversity hot spot for this group.

Status of Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 (Carnivora: Felidae) in Bhutan

“…in Jutzeler et al 2010). Some surveys have recorded the cat more frequently than sympatric wild cats (Lyngdoh et al 2011;Gumal et al 2014;Pusparani et al 2014), while others have recorded it less frequently (Lyngdoh et al 2011;Tempa et al 2013). This information may suggest that their abundance, relative to other species, likely varies significantly across their range in South Asia (McCarthy et al 2015) and warrants further investigation.…”

“…This information may suggest that their abundance, relative to other species, likely varies significantly across their range in South Asia (McCarthy et al 2015) and warrants further investigation. Increasing camera-trap surveys in Bhutan are recording further detection of the species (Jigme 2011;Tempa et al 2011Tempa et al , 2013Thinley et al 2015b). The Asiatic Golden Cat has been recorded from the southern foothills of Royal Manas National Park at elevations of 80m (Tempa et al 2011(Tempa et al , 2013 to Jigme Dorji National Park at an elevation of 4033m (Jigme 2011) (Table 1) (Jigme 2011;Tempa et al 2011Tempa et al , 2013DoFPS 2015), and two districts outside of the protected areas: Trongsa and Wangdue Phodrang (Jigme 2011).…”

“…Increasing camera-trap surveys in Bhutan are recording further detection of the species (Jigme 2011;Tempa et al 2011Tempa et al , 2013Thinley et al 2015b). The Asiatic Golden Cat has been recorded from the southern foothills of Royal Manas National Park at elevations of 80m (Tempa et al 2011(Tempa et al , 2013 to Jigme Dorji National Park at an elevation of 4033m (Jigme 2011) (Table 1) (Jigme 2011;Tempa et al 2011Tempa et al , 2013DoFPS 2015), and two districts outside of the protected areas: Trongsa and Wangdue Phodrang (Jigme 2011). However, the species has not been recorded from areas in eastern Bhutan such as Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary and Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (Fig.…”

“…Recent records have reported their presence in areas of dwarf rhododendron forest and grasslands at high elevations (Wang 2007), in conifer forests dominated by Fir Tsuga dumosa (Vernes et al 2015), and also in cool broadleaf and mixed-conifer forests (Thinley et al 2015b). Tempa et al (2013) reported the species from Royal Manas National Park where the vegetation is mainly dominated by warm broad-leaved forests.…”

“…These efforts have detected mostly common and large mammals like Tiger Panthera tigris, Snow Leopard Panthera uncia, Elephant Elephas maximus, but have excluded rare and elusive species such as Clouded Leopard Neofelis nebulosa, Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii, Marbled Cat Pardofelis marmorata, Fishing Cat Prionailurus viverrinus and Jungle Cat Felis chaus (Tempa et al 2013). Bhutan is one of the top 10 global hotspots for biodiversity that include the 'Himalayan' hotspot (Gillison 2012) and is home to 11 wild cat species, of which, six are small cats (Wangchuk et al 2004).…”