Human disturbance is a major determinant of wildlife distribution in Himalayan midhill landscapes of Nepal
Abstract
Forest landscapes in the midhills of western Nepal are not adequately conserved within a protected area network. The species and ecosystems in these human-dominated landscapes are highly endangered.
Understanding the effects of human activities on wildlife is therefore important for devising an appropriate conservation strategy in this region. Here, we show, using data on spatial structure of three endangered mountain ungulates, that presence of these species is determined by the level of human disturbance and habitat requirements.
We show that species preferring flat areas covered by dense forest are exposed to more intensive human disturbances, and even an adaptation to rugged areas does not imply less human disturbance. Abundance of all species studied declined with the number of villages in the vicinity and increased with distance to nearest village.
Therefore, increasing human population may contribute to a decrease of wildlife population in the region. To prevent this, community forestry program enabling local people to protect forest near villages and land-use strategy aimed at reducing further encroachment of forest in higher altitudes should be immediately launched in the region.