Identifying potential habitats of Himalayan Red Panda Ailurus fulgens (Cuvier, 1825) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Ailuridae) in Neora Valley National Park, West Bengal, India
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The Himalayan Red Panda Ailurus fulgens (Cuvier, 1825) is a globally Endangered species whose population is reported to be declining in the wild. It is a priority species for the Neora Valley National Park (NVNP) since it is the flagship species of this ecosystem. Moreover, this landscape functions as an important connecting link of the Himalayan Red Panda habitat between the state of West Bengal and Sikkim. The spatial habitat of the Himalayan Red Panda in this National Park is little known. Our study attempts to identify the spatial distribution of potential habitats for the Himalayan Red Panda using the maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt 3.4.1). The model predicted a 55 km2 of potential habitat with the current climate scenario. With climate change, predicted potential habitats are likely to experience significant loss and upward shift to a relatively higher elevation. Hence, the management of the NVNP should identify the potential habitats and accomplish realistic goals to help conserve the Red Pandas.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT. This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.
References
Bista, D., P.K. Paudel, S.R. Jnawali, A.P. Sherpa, S. Shrestha & K.P. Acharya (2019). Red panda fine‐scale habitat selection along a Central Himalayan longitudinal gradient. Ecology and Evolution 9(9): 5260–5269. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5116 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5116
CITES (2010). Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora: The CITES Appendices. UN Environment Programme, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.cites.org. Accessed on 19 June 2023.
Chettri, N., E. Sharma, B. Shakya & B. Bajracharya (2007). Developing Forested Conservation Corridors in the Kangchenjunga Landscape, Eastern Himalaya. Mountain Research and Development 27(3): 211–214. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.0923 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.0923
Choudhury, A. (2001). An overview of the status and conservation of the Red Panda Ailurus fulgens in India, with reference to its global status. Oryx 35(3): 250–259. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2001.00181.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2001.00181.x
DeMarco, P.J. & C.C. Nóbrega (2018). Evaluating collinearity effects on species distribution models: An approach based on virtual species simulation. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0202403–e0202403. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202403 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202403
Dorji, S., R. Rajaratnam & K. Vernes (2012). The Vulnerable Red Panda Ailurus fulgens in Bhutan: distribution, conservation status and management recommendations. Oryx 46(4): 536–543. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605311000780 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605311000780
Elith, J., S.J. Phillips, T. Hastie, M. Dudík, Y.E. Chee & C.J. Yates (2011). A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Diversity and Distributions 17(1): 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00725.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00725.x
Ghose, D. & P.K. Dutta (2011). Status and distribution of Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens fulgens, in India, pp. 357–374. In: Glatston, A.R. (ed.). Red Panda: Biology and Conservation of the First Panda. Academic Press, London, UK, 488 pp. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-4377-7813-7.00020-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-4377-7813-7.00020-3
Glatston, A., F. Wei, Z. Than & A. Sherpa (2015). Ailurus fulgens (errata version published in 2017). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T714A110023718. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T714A45195924.en. Accessed on 19 June 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T714A45195924.en
Hijmans, R.J., S.E. Cameron, J.L. Parra, P.G. Jones & A. Jarvis (2005). Very high- resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 25(15): 1965–1978. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1276 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1276
Hu, Y., A. Thapa, H. Fan, T. Ma, Q. Wu, S. Ma, D. Zhang, B. Wang, M. Li, L. Yan & F. Wei (2020). Genomic evidence for two phylogenetic species and long-term population bottlenecks in red pandas. Science Advances 6(9): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax5751 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax5751
Joshi, B.D., S. Dalui, S.K. Singh, T. Mukherjee, K. Chandra, L.K. Sharma & M. Thakur (2021). Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh splits red panda into two phylogenetic species. Mammalian Biology 101: 121–124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00094-y DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00094-y
Kullman, L. (2002). Rapid recent range-margin rise of tree and shrub species in the Swedish Scandes. Journal of Ecology 90(1): 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0022-0477.2001.00630.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0022-0477.2001.00630.x
Lyon, L.M., S.C. Wallace & T.A. Joyner (2022). Impacts of climate change on extant Ailurids, pp. 369–392. In: Glatston, A.R. (eds.). Red Panda (Second Edition): Biology and Conservation of the First Panda. Academic Press, London, UK, 577 pp. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823753-3.00006-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823753-3.00006-5
Mallick, J. (2010a). Neora Valley—A new short-listed World Heritage Site. Tigerpaper 37: 12–16.
Mallick, J.K. (2010b). Status of Red Panda Ailurus fulgens in Neora Valley National Park, Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India. Small Carnivore Conservation 43: 30–36.
Phillips, S. J., R.P. Anderson & R.E. Schapire (2006). Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling 190(3–4): 231–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026
Polechová, J. & D. Storch (2008). Ecological Niche, pp.1088–1097. In: Jørgensen, S.E. & B.D. Fath (eds.). Encyclopedia of Ecology. Academic Press, 4122 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008045405-4.00811-9
Pradhan, S., G.K. Saha & J.A. Khan (2001). Food Habits of the Red Panda, Ailurus Fulgens in the Singhalila National Park, Darjeeling, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 98(2): 224–230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(00)00079-3
Ranjitkar, S., R. Kindt, N.M. Sujakhu, R. Hart, W. Guo, X. Yang, K.K. Shrestha, J. Xu & E. Luedeling (2014). Separation of the bioclimatic spaces of Himalayan tree Rhododendron species predicted by ensemble suitability models. Global Ecology and Conservation 1: 2–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2014.07.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2014.07.001
Roberts, M.S. & J.L. Gittleman (1984). Ailurus fulgens. Mammalian Species 222: 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/3503840 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3503840
Sharma, E. & N. Chettri (2005). ICIMOD’s Transboundary Biodiversity Management Initiative in the Hindu Kush–Himalayas. Mountain Research and Development 25(3): 278–281. https://doi.org/10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025[0278:ITBMII]2.0.CO;2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025[0278:ITBMII]2.0.CO;2
Stocker, T. (2014). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1535 pp. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324
Thapa, A., Y. Hu, P.C. Aryal, P.B. Singh, K.B. Shah & F. Wei (2020). The endangered red panda in Himalayas: Potential distribution and ecological habitat associates. Global Ecology and Conservation 21(2020): p. e00890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00890 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00890
Su, H., M. Bista & M. Li (2021). Mapping habitat suitability for Asiatic black bear and red panda in Makalu Barun National Park of Nepal from Maxent and GARP models. Science Report 11: 14135. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93540-x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93540-x
Wei, F., Z. Feng, Z. Wang & J. Hu (1999). Current distribution, status and conservation of wild red pandas Ailurus fulgens in China. Biological Conservation 89(3): 285–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(98)00156-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(98)00156-6