Distributional response of ungulate species along the gradient of human disturbance and management regime

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Naresh Khanal, Research, Centre for Ecological Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal; Forestry, University of Quebec, Rimouski, QC, Canada and Narayan Prasad Gautam, Wildlife Conservation, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal

Background/Question/Methods
Knowledge of prey population and their distributional response along the human disturbance gradient is important in guiding tiger conservation efforts and achieving the goal of doubling tiger population by 2022.

I assessed the impact of human disturbance, habitat type and management regime on relative abundance of key prey species of tiger in Bardia National Park, its buffer zone and Khata Corridor area.

I conducted sign surveys along 1-km transects in total of 126 transects in 32 grids of each 9 km2, and recorded signs of each species for each 200 m segment of transects and evidence of human presence, livestock grazing and habitat type. First, I compared whether the sign encounter rate of each species differs according to the habitat type and management regime. I then fit Generalized Linear Models to test the influence of predictor variables (human encounter rate, livestock grazing intensity, habitat type and management regime) on Relative Abundance Index (RAI) or sign encounter rate per km of prey species and checked the slope parameters of predictor variables to infer their influence with predictor variable.

Results/Conclusions
Chital was found to have highest mean encounter rate per km (RAI=1.74, SD 1.96) whereas swamp deer had lowest encounter rate (RAI = 0.05, SD 0.31). Overall species encounter rate showed mixed result for their distribution according to habitat type, some species preferring mixed forest (spotted deer 2.40 SER, wild boar 1.90 SER) while some preferring grassland (hog deer 1.38 SER). Similarly, national park had highest encounter rate of chital whereas barking deer had highest encounter rate outside buffer zone area. GLMs showed consistent negative influence of human encounter rate and livestock grazing influence on relative abundance of all species expect wild boar and barking deer.

The result shows that prey species have differential response to human disturbance, habitat type and management regime. Differential response to habitat type and management regime perhaps suggest that integrated management of all habitat types and management regimes would be necessary to sustain the collective prey base recovery. Most importantly, highest RAI in mixed forest and grassland habitat indicates that appropriate mixture and distribution of grassland and forest patches would be preferable from overall point of view of prey base conservation. Moreover, the finding that some of the prey species occurring in buffer zone and outside buffer zone area can be taken as an opportunity to include the local community in conservations activities formulating appropriate plans.