Factors affecting livestock depredation by snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the Himalayan region of Nepal

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) found in central Asia is classified as vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Every year, large number of livestock are killed by snow leopards in Nepal, leading to economic loss to local communities and making human-snow leopard conflict a major threat to snow leopard conservation. We conducted formal and informal stakeholder’s interviews to gather information related to livestock depredation with the aim to map the attack sites by the snow leopard. These sites were further validated by district forest office staffs to assess sources of bias. Attack sites older than 3 years were removed from the survey. We found 109 attack sites and visited all the sites for geo location purpose (GPS points of all unique sites were taken). We maintained at least a 100 m distance between attack locations to ensure that each attack location was unique, which resulted in 86 unique locations. A total of 235 km2 was used to define livestock depredation risk zone during this study. Using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling, we found that distance to livestock sheds, distance to paths, aspect, and distance to roads were major contributing factors to the snow leopard’s attacks. We identified 13.64 km2 as risk zone for livestock depredation from snow leopards in the study area. Furthermore, snow leopards preferred to attack livestock near livestock shelters, far from human paths and at moderate distance from motor roads. These identified attack zones should be managed both for snow leopard conservation and livestock protection in order to balance human livelihoods while protecting snow leopards and their habitats

Niche breadth and overlap of spotted deer and domestic cattle with swamp deer in tropical region of Nepal

Background Knowledge about the niche overlap among wild species and domestic cattle is helpful to conserve and manage wildlife. We assessed the habitat niche breadth and overlap of sympatrically living spotted deer (Axis axis) and domestic cattle with swamp deer (Cervus duvaucelii) in Shuklaphanta National Park, Nepal during the dry season to explore the possibility of interspecific competition by studying the habitat use by these species. The assumption was made that the presence of pellets is proof of habitat used by species. Methods Grids of 2 km x 2 km have four subgrids, each with four sample plots, making a total of 16 plots (20 m x 20 m) in each grid. The size of each sub-grid was 200 m x 200 m and they were placed randomly inside the grid but at least 1 km apart from one another. The data was collected in a 96 plots in total. Levin's niche breadth and Morisita's overlap index were calculated to determine the niche breadth and the habitat overlap, respectively. Results The Levin's measure of niche breadth suggested that spotted deer had the highest acclimatization with an index value of 0.94, followed by domestic cattle at 0.50, and swamp deer at 0.33 in our study area. Thus, our findings supported the evidence that spotted deer are habitat generalists, whereas swamp deer are habitat specialists. The swamp deer had lower niche breadth and more overlap with domestic cattle. Conclusion Our study showed the least niche breadth of swamp deer in comparison to spotted deer and domestic cattle. The domestic cattle had the highest and least niche overlap with spotted deer and swamp deer, respectively, in terms of habitat use. Our study suggests that domestic cattle grazing should be stopped, and grassland management should be carried out for the benefit of ungulates. Similar studies should be conducted, including different seasons and places, prior to appropriate habitat management. In addition, further studies are needed to quantify the extent of interspecific competition by incorporating more species.Peer reviewe

Dry season diet composition of four-horned antelope Tetracerus quadricornis in tropical dry deciduous forests, Nepal

It is essential to assess the feeding strategies of threatened species during resource-scarce seasons to understand their dietary niche breadth and inform appropriate habitat management measures. In this study, we examined the diet composition of four-horned antelope (FHA) Tetracerus and quadricornis, one of the least studied ungulate species, in Banke National Park, Nepal. A total of 53 fresh pellet groups were collected between December 2015 and January 2016 and analyzed using micro-histological fecal analysis technique. First, we prepared 133 micro-histological photographs of different parts of 64 reference plant species. Then we compared 1,590 fragments of 53 fecal samples with photographs of reference plants to assess the percentage of occurrence of different plant species in FHA diet. A total of 30 plant species belonging to 18 different families were identified in fecal samples. Chi-square goodness of fit tests showed that FHA appeared not to feed all plant uniformly. Out of 1,520 identified fragments in fecal samples, 1,300 were browse species and 220 were grass species. Browse represented 85.5% of the identified plant fragments, suggesting that FHA might be adopting a browser strategy at least during winter when grasses are low in abundance and their nutritive quality is poor. Tree species had the highest contribution in the diet (46.55%) followed by shrubs (24.52%). The family Gramineae was consumed in the highest proportion (27.68%) followed by Euphorbiaceae (11.95%). Overall, our results suggest that FHA has the feeding plasticity to adapt to resource fluctuation. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that dicot plant species—particularly fruit trees and shrubs, which are the major source of nutrients for FHA during resource-lean, dry season—be conserved and natural regeneration of these taxa be promoted

Is trophy hunting of bharal (blue sheep) and Himalayan tahr contributing to their conservation in Nepal?

Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve (DHR), the only hunting reserve in Nepal, is famous for trophy hunting of bharal or ‘blue sheep’ (Pseudois nayaur) and Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus). Although trophy hunting has been occurring in DHR since 1987, its ecological consequences are poorly known. We assessed the ecological consequences of bharal and Himalayan tahr hunting in DHR, and estimated the economic contribution of hunting to the government and local communities based on the revenue data. The bharal population increased significantly from 1990 to 2011, but the sex ratio became skewed from male-biased (129 Male:100 Female) in 1990 to female-biased (82 Male:100 Female) in 2011. Similarly, a recent survey of Himalayan tahr showed that there was a total population of 285 tahr with a sex ratio of 60 Male: 100 Female. Bharal and Himalayan tahr trophy hunting has generated economic benefits through generation of local employment and direct income of $364072 during the last five years. Government revenue collected from 2007-08 to 2011-12 totalled$184372. Male-focused trophy hunting as practiced in DHR may not be an ecologically sustainable practice, because its effect on the sex ratio that lead to negative consequences for the genetic structure of the population in the long term. Therefore, the population dynamics and sex ratios of the bharal and tahr must be considered while setting harvest quotas

Major reasons for Nepalese Finance Companies’ Mergers Failure : – Case – Synergy Finance Ltd

The thesis is the result of the curiosity of the author about the unusual growth of mergers and acquisitions in Nepal. Author realized the trend is not going well with the ‘C’ grade finance companies. So, he focused on the particular SFL merger’s failure to find out the major factors responsible for the downfall. He has studied about the 3 companies under the renowned frameworks set by (Harspeslagh and Jamison 1991) and (Jarillo 2003). Author has relied mainly upon literature reviews and other the secondary sources like scholarly articles, journals, newspapers and other publicly available sources on web. This study reflects the deep study of the official statistics, data and reports and further analysis of them. For the reliability, author collected the various interviews of the ex-chairperson and ex-CEO of SFL. In first part, author analyzes the reports of financial regulatory body Central Bank of Nepal to understand the situation of the mergers. Along with that, he studies the Mergers Bylaw-2011 provisions. Futhermore, he analyzes the almost all reliable financial and non financial indicators of SFL before and after mergers in order to focus on the particular reason of its failure. As the conclusions, author finds that mergers is taken as handy strategy to increase the capital adequacy rather than strategic improvement of financial health of company. And furthermore, SFL failed in the mergers due to the unhealthy mergers and failed strategy of reducing non performing loans of the company

Habitat overlaps between red panda (Ailurus fulgens) and Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in Himalaya

Nepal is rich in biodiversity due to variability in elevation from 67m to Mount Everest. Out of 20 protected areas, government of Nepal has established 11 protected areas in Himalayan region of the country. Information on habitat preference and distribution of most of the wildlife species is lacking due to lack of the scientific study about the habitats of the animals. Studies to explore the relation between more animals are very limited. Government of Nepal and others conservation partners are feeling difficulties to manage the wildlife in their natural habitat due to lack of scientific and reliable information on their habitats. Habitat overlap survey can be the best study to identify the relation between the two species so the conservation of one animal can benefit the other one. In this study we identify important habitat parameters and overlapped habitat of the red panda (red cat bear; Ailurus fulgens) and Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) by the help of Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling in the Makalu Barun National Park, Nepal. GPS points of the species occurrence were collected from field and environmental variables were extracted from freely available sources. We identified the topographical and anthropogenic variable as best predictor of the distribution of the both species. The study area covers the 644 km2 habitat of Asiatic black bear and 534 km2 habitats of red panda. The 440 km2 habitat of both species is overlapped, which is 82 % habitat of red panda and 68% of habitat of Asiatic black bear. Most of the habitats are located inside the Buffer Zone of the National Park so the effective conservation work should be focused inside the Buffer Zone for the conservation of both species.peerReviewe

Factors influencing the global distribution of the endangered Egyptian vulture

Vultures are ecologically important primarily because of their scavenging role in cleaning carcasses of the environment. Because of anthropogenic impacts, the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) has suffered catastrophic declines in parts of its range and, thus, information about its global distribution and factors influencing its occurrence within this range are essential for its conservation. To this end, we estimated the global distribution of Egyptian vulture and variables related to this distribution. We used occurrence points (n = 4740) from online data sources and literature, environmental variables related to these sites and Maximum Entropy software to model the distribution of this species and its relationship to environmental variables during the entire year, breeding and overwintering. Out of ~ 49 million km2 study area, the Egyptian vulture had a predicted range of 6,599,508 km2 distributed across three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. The densest distribution was in Southern Europe, India and Northern Africa and a sparser distribution was around Mid and Western Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan. Climate was related to the vulture’s most probable range: in particular medium temperature seasonality and low precipitation during the coldest yearly quarter were important variables regardless of the season of observations examined. Conservation of identified habitats and mitigation of anthropogenic impacts to conserve these vultures are recommended for immediate and long-term conservation of the Egyptian vulture globally

Macronutrient proportions of food items and diets of Asiatic black bear in Nepal

This file contains the calculations used to quantify the macronutrient proportions of food items and diets of Asiatic black bear in Nepal

Habitat overlap between Asiatic black bear Ursus thibetanus and red panda Ailurus fulgens in Himalaya.

Studying habitat overlap between sympatric species is one of the best ways to identify interspecies relationships and to direct conservation efforts so that multiple species can benefit. However, studies exploring interspecies relationships are very limited in Nepal, making it difficult for the government of Nepal and conservation partners to manage wildlife in their habitats, especially in Himalayan protected areas. In this study, we identified habitat overlap between Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and red panda (Ailurus fulgens) as well as important habitat types for both species in the Makalu Barun National Park, Nepal using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling. GPS points of species occurrence were collected from the field, and environmental variables were extracted from freely available sources. We found that the study area contained 647 km2 of Asiatic black bear habitat and 443 km2 of the red panda habitat. 368 km2 supported both species, which constituted 57% of the Asiatic black bear habitat and 83% of the red panda habitat. We found that conifer forest was the most important habitat type for both species. Because the largest portions of both species' habitat were located inside the buffer zone, a peripheral zone of national park, conservation efforts for these sympatric species should be focused inside the buffer zone to be most effective