Temporal shift in activity patterns of Himalayan marmots in relation to pastoralism

Poudel, Buddi Sagar; Spooner, Peter G.; Matthews, Alison

doi:10.1093/beheco/arv083

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…The daily activity pattern of Himalayan marmot, like all other species of marmots, is bimodal, mostly active during morning and late afternoon (Poudel et al 2015). Livestock grazing pastures provide an ideal habitat for the marmots (Nikol'skii and Ulak 2006).…”

Section: Study Species and Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because the average area of a family group of Himalayan marmot generally ranges 0.5-1.7 ha (Nikol'skii and Ulak 2007), and maximum distance travelled from their burrows is 48 m (Poudel et al 2015), we defined a marmot 'site' as an area encompassing the burrows occupied by a family group or interacting family group within a radius of approximately 100 m, that was separated from other marmot sites by a minimum of 270 m. This process of site selection was developed to avoid resampling the same individual in more than one site, and ensure sites were independent of each other in terms of behavioural interactions.…”

Section: Selection Of Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each site was visited 2 times, in the morning (0800-1100 h) and in the evening (1500-1800 h) periods, when Himalayan marmots were most active (Poudel et al 2015). During each time, focal observations were made on 2-3 individuals, so the number of observations in a site varied from 4 to 6.…”

Section: Marmot Activity Budgetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methodological differences in the definition of individual behaviours also makes comparison between other marmot studies problematic. However, given that Himalayan marmots have limited above-ground time (Poudel et al 2015) would explain why much of this time is spent foraging as compared to other species. We found that disturbances associated with pastoralism significantly influenced the above-ground activities of marmots, where PCA showed that marmots altered the relative time spent conducting foraging, resting and vigilance behaviours in relation to grazing intensity.…”

Section: Activity Budget Of Marmots and Pastoralism Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent work on the Himalayan marmot (Poudel et al 2015) found a temporal shift in activity patterns in relation to pastoralism. In Nepal, marmot colonies often occur in rangeland environments also used by domestic livestock (Aryal et al 2013(Aryal et al , 2015.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Poudel

Spooner

Matthews

2015

Ecological Research

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Pastoralism is pervasive and has a long history across the rangelands of Trans-Himalaya. Disturbance associated with pastoralism can influence the behaviour of wild animals; hence, it is important to better understand its effects on wild animal behaviour. We compared the activity budget of the Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) between areas experiencing both high and low levels of pastoralism, in the Upper Mustang region in Nepal. Scan sampling was used to collect diurnal activity budget data on adult marmots, whereas 2 min focal observations were made on foraging marmots to assess vigilance during foraging. Contrary to our prediction, there was no significant difference between areas of high and low pastoralism in terms of foraging behaviour. However, the vigilance activity of marmots was significantly influenced by the extent of disturbances associated with pastoralism. Marmots scanned the surroundings more often while foraging and spent more time scanning in high pastoralism sites as compared to marmots in low pastoralism sites. Although we found no direct negative effects of pastoralism on foraging time, marmots shifted the time of day when they foraged. This study suggests that marmots adjust their vigilance behaviour according to the environmental conditions in which they occur. These findings have important implications for the conservation of marmots in the wake of increasing pastoral activities and consequent increases in human-wildlife conflict in Nepal.

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Section: Study Species and Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Selection Of Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marmot Activity Budgetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Activity Budget Of Marmots and Pastoralism Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Poudel

Spooner

Matthews

2015

Ecological Research

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Effects of human activity on the habitat utilization of Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) in Zoige wetland

Zhou

Krzton

Gao

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Human activity is increasingly and persistently disturbing nature and wild animals. Affected wildlife adopts multiple strategies to deal with different human influences. To explore the effect of human activity on habitat utilization of Himalayan marmot ( Marmota himalayana ), habitat utilization patterns of three neighboring marmot populations in habitats affected differently by human activities were recorded and compared. We found that (a) distance between reproductive burrows (a represent of reproductive pairs) becomes shorter under the influence of human activities, and more burrows were dug as temporary shelters, resulting in shorter distance between those shelters and shorter distance flee to those shelters and, consequently, shorter flight initiation distance when threatened. More burrows that are closer to the disturbed habitats improve the ability to escape from threats. (b) Reproductive burrow site selection of the species is determined by the availability of mounds in the habitat, and breeding pairs selectively build reproductive (also the hibernation) burrows on mounds, potentially to improve surveillance when basking and the drainage of burrows. Human activities generally drive breeding pairs away from the road to dig their reproductive burrows likely to reduce disturbance from vehicles. However, even heavy human activity exerts no pressure on the distance of reproductive burrows from the road or the mound volume of the high disturbance population, potentially because mounds are the best burrowing site to reproduce and hibernate in the habitat. Marmots deal with disturbance by digging more burrows in the habitat to flee more effectively and building reproductive burrows on mounds to gain better vigilance and drainage efficiency.

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Spatio‐temporal occurrence and sensitivity to livestock husbandry of Pallas's cat in the Mongolian Altai

et al. 2021

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Biased research and conservation efforts result in some faunal groups (e.g., small felids) being understudied, and hence these groups are often declining without adequate knowledge to manage for threat reduction. The Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul) occurs across central and western Asia with declining populations and the largest population is likely in Mongolia.A potential threat to this felid is livestock encroachment across its range, including within protected areas, yet we lack a clear understanding of the impact of livestock husbandry on this cat.We used motion-sensitive camera data from 216 sites in 4 study areas in western Mongolia to study the occurrence probability of Pallas's cat in relation to habitat characteristics and occurrence of livestock, and conducted a local assessment within a strictly protected area where we obtained the highest number of detections. We estimated a relatively low occupancy (0.33 ± 0.10), which is associated with sites with natural vegetation, steeper slopes, and greater prey abundance.Occupancy also increased with increasing livestock occurrence, particularly large herds of sheep and goats. Such cooccurrence was partially adjusted by diel activity segregation, presumably to limit direct encounters. Our results suggest that the preferred habitat by Pallas's cat in the study region coincides with areas encroached by livestock. The Pallas's cat's

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Temporal shift in activity patterns of Himalayan marmots in relation to pastoralism

Cited by 22 publications

References 60 publications

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

Effects of human activity on the habitat utilization of Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) in Zoige wetland

Spatio‐temporal occurrence and sensitivity to livestock husbandry of Pallas's cat in the Mongolian Altai

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