A pattern of livestock depredation by snow leopard to the yak herding pastoralist in western Bhutan

Abstract The pastoralists co-exist with wild predators and livestock depredation by predators causes an immense impact on the livelihood of the herders and instigates a negative attitude towards the conservation of these wild predators. Yak herders in western Bhutan move from place to place for herding on pasture and they face challenges with livestock predation by top predators like snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and dhole (Cuon aplinus). To investigate patterns of livestock depredation by the snow leopard and determine the attitude of herders towards snow leopard conservation, we conducted a household interview with all 56 itinerant yak herders in the west of Bhutan. Each herd was keeping a mean of 84 (± 29) yaks per herd. Yaks were mainly kept for milk and bulls for breeding and bullocks for meat to sustain their family livelihood. Predation of livestock by predators (42.9%) was among the top problems faced by the yak herders. A total of 398 yaks were lost to snow leopards (78.86%) followed by dhole (18.3%), Himalayan black bear (Ursus thibetanus) (2.7%), and common leopard (Panthera pardus) (0.2%) in the past 5 years (2015–2019). The majority (87.22.8%) of the kills by snow leopards were young yak and most (60.5%) kills were recorded during summer. Snow leopards are considered harmful (73.2%), and herders (71.1%) are not in favour of snow leopard conservation. Herders’ conflict with snow leopards is severe in the current study site, and we recommend social development for conservation programmes like livelihood alternatives for the herders, compensation and insurance schemes, and conservation awareness programmes for the yak herders as an intervention to create harmonic co-existence between the yak herder and the snow leopard

Conservation threats to the endangered golden langur (Trachypithecus geei, Khajuria 1956) in Bhutan

Threat assessment is critical to species conservation and management planning, because prior identification and assessment of key threats to conservation planning can assist in developing appropriate interventions or strategies. Comprehensive threat assessments are currently lacking for many threatened primates. In this paper, we classify and rank all direct threats to the endangered golden langur (Trachypithecus geei) in Bhutan in order to provide a practical guide to future conservation of the species. Information on threats was based on interviews with local people, discussion with field forestry staff, and social media interaction. We classified threats to golden langur habitats and populations, and ranked them using Miradi™, an analytical software for the adaptive management of conservation projects. We identified five habitat threats: (1) hydropower development, (2) road development, (3) housing development, (4) resource extraction, and (5) agricultural expansion. We also identified seven population threats: (1) electrocution, (2) road kill, (3) road injury, (4) dog kill, (5) retaliatory killing, (6) illegal pet keeping, and (7) hybridization with capped langurs. We rated the overall threat to golden langurs in Bhutan as 'medium'. Hydropower, road, and housing development constituted 'high' impact, while agricultural expansion, resource extraction, electrocution, and road kill had 'medium' impact; the remaining threats had 'low' impact. To immediately mitigate threats to golden langurs, we recommend: (a) installing speed limit signage and speed breakers with strict enforcement of speed limits; (b) installing insulated electric cables and fencing around power transformers; and (c) reducing and restraining domestic dog populations

New Herpetofaunal Records from the Kingdom of Bhutan Obtained through Citizen Science

Social media has, in the past decade, emerged unexpectedly as a powerful tool in citizen science (Liberatore et al. 2018). Whether unintended or formally integrated, it offers, among other benefits, mass participation in activities such as data collection in inventories, monitoring, or natural history observations (Tulloch 2013). It can be argued that such activities often do not consume taxpayers’ contributions, as formal research projects tend to do, and can provide a cost-effective means of data collection (Goldstien et al. 2014). The vast number of (and rapidly rising) online resources and virtual specialists available to identify samples serve as references and reviewers of such data, increasing the speed over traditional forms of data collection (e.g., scientific publishing) and providing the capacity to absorb multiple opinions. Nonetheless, challenges that remain in citizen science programs are directing the data towards priority scientific objectives and needs, and achieving high standards in data quality (Ambrose-Oji et al. 2014)