Response of the Endangered Red Panda Ailurus Fulgens Fulgens to Anthropogenic Disturbances, and Its Distribution in Phrumsengla National Park, Bhutan
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Response of the Endangered red panda Ailurus fulgens fulgens to anthropogenic disturbances, and its distribution in Phrumsengla National Park, Bhutan P EMA D ENDUP,ELLEN C HENG,CHOKI L HAM and U GYEN T ENZIN Abstract Across much of Asia protected areas have a dual The red panda Ailurus fulgens, a cat-sized arboreal mam- objective of conserving biodiversity and supporting rural mal of Himalayan temperate forests, may be one such spe- and indigenous livelihoods. For the red panda Ailurus ful- cies. Categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, an gens and other sensitive species of concern, even limited estimated , mature individuals are distributed among anthropogenic disturbance may influence their use of pro- five Asian countries (Glatston et al., ). Red pandas have tected areas. We quantified the prevalence of timber collec- been confirmed in districts in Bhutan, districts in tion and livestock grazing, and their impacts on red panda Nepal, three states in India, one state in Myanmar, and habitat use, in Phrumsengla National Park, Bhutan. Red three provinces in China (Dorji et al., ; Glatston et al., pandas used sites with at least % bamboo cover, as evi- ). denced by presence of their faecal pellets. They avoided As with many species for which few data beyond pres- sites disturbed by livestock, regardless of bamboo availabil- ence/absence are available, conservation of the red panda ity. Timber collection itself was not an important predictor is frequently measured in terms of protected area coverage. of red panda presence but bamboo may be harvested oppor- In India and China c. and % of potential red panda habi- tunistically from sites where timber is collected. Conserva- tat is protected, respectively (Wei et al., ;Choudhury, tion efforts for the red panda should not rely on protected ). Red panda habitat overlaps three protected areas in areas alone but should explicitly consider and mitigate im- Myanmar and nine protected areas in Nepal (Glatston et al., pacts of anthropogenic disturbances in protected areas. ). Dorji et al. () reported red panda presence in eight protected areas, one botanical park and several biological Keywords Ailurus fulgens, bamboo, Bhutan, Himalaya, corridors in Bhutan. However, despite habitat protection livestock, timber and legislation against hunting in its range countries, red panda populations continue to decline. In China %ofred panda populations may have been lost since the s(Wei Introduction et al., ). Loss and fragmentation of bamboo habitats is a major threat to the survival of these obligate bamboo feeders lobally % of the areal extent categorized under the (Yonzon et al., ). Poaching is also an increasing threat to GIUCN protected area management system comprises the species’ persistence (Glatston et al., ). category V or VI protected areas that support traditional The effectiveness of current conservation efforts for the and sustainable use of natural resources alongside biodiversity red panda is not well understood. In particular, the red pan- – conservation (IUCN & UNEP WCMC, ). Balancing da’s shy nature, slow reproductive rate and narrow ecologic- human needs and ecological functions in protected areas is al niche make it susceptible to anthropogenic disturbances. important, particularly when these sites are the home or re- Human visitation and resource extraction are common in source base for indigenous and rural populations (DeFries many of the . , IUCN-categorized protected areas in et al., ). However, for some wildlife species of concern red panda range countries (Juffe-Bignoli et al., ). even limited anthropogenic disturbance can influence their Therefore, even in protected areas designated for biodiver- use of habitat and persistence. For such species, inclusion in sity conservation, human activities may be hampering re- protected areas is not a sufficient substitute for direct conser- covery of red pandas and other sympatric species. We vation action. report here on the red panda’s use of habitat in relation to subsistence-level timber extraction and livestock grazing in the km Phrumsengla National Park (formerly known PEMA DENDUP* (Corresponding author), CHOKI LHAM* and UGYEN TENZIN Department of Forest and Park Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Forest, as Thrumshingla National Park), an IUCN Category II pro- Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment, Bhutan tected area in Bhutan. E-mail [email protected] In Phrumsengla National Park and most other protected ELLEN CHENG Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University areas of Bhutan there are villages within the protected area of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA borders. Resident communities are permitted to extract tim- *Also at: Jigme Dorji National Park, Department of Forest and Park Services, – Ministry of Agriculture and Forest, Bhutan ber from protected areas within a km multi-use zone buffering their village, or in any non-core zone. Each house- Received December . Revision requested March . Accepted April . First published online September . hold can obtain a permit to cut , cubic feet (. m )of Oryx, 2017, 51(4), 701–708 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000399 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 28 Sep 2021 at 01:54:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000399 702 P. Dendup et al. FIG. 1 Location of the Chungphel-to-Bribdungla (C–B) and Dangyungma-to-Sengor (D–S) transects in Phrumsengla National Park, Bhutan. timber for new house construction every years, and , Study area cubic feet (. m ) for renovation and extension of their house every – years. Each household is also eligible for Phrumsengla National Park in central Bhutan (Fig. ) is the cubic feet (. m ) of timber for other construction site of a previous study of red panda associations with broad (e.g. cattle shed, store house, machinery shed) every and fine-scale natural habitat attributes (Dorji et al., ). years (Ministry of Agriculture, ). Mean annual rainfall is –, mm, with most precipi- In the core zone of Phrumsengla National Park timber tation falling during May–August as part of the Asian mon- collection is usually concentrated within the multi-use soon. Approximately , species of plants and species areas surrounding villages. Livestock provide critical income of mammals have been recorded in the Park (Nature for many rural households in Bhutan, including those in Conservation Division, ). Dominant tree species in- Phrumsengla National Park and other protected areas. clude Bhutan fir Abies densa, blue pine Pinus wallichiana, Livestock are often allowed to stray in forests without re- Himalayan birch Betula utilis and Himalayan hemlock straint, unaccompanied by herders (Wangchuk, ), Tsuga dumosa. Common understorey plant species in- and therefore their impacts may extend far beyond the clude rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp.) and bamboos vicinity of a village. (Borinda grossa, Yushania microphylla, Yushania maling, In Bhutan collection of bamboo and most other non-wood Thamnocalamus spathiflorus and Chimonobambusa callo- forest products from public forests and protected areas sa). Priority mammal species include the red panda, the requires payment of a royalty (Ministry of Agriculture, Bengal tiger Panthera tigris tigris, the common leopard ). More than %ofBhutan’shouseholdscollectbam- Panthera pardus, the Himalayan black bear Ursus thibeta- boo, especially Borinda grossa, from forests to make mats, nus and the wild pig Sus scrofa (Nature Conservation roofing, fencing, baskets and other household items (Royal Division, ). Government of Bhutan, ). At the time of our study Our study focused on two transects, Dangyungma- (–)mostBorinda grossa in the study region was to-Sengor and Chungphel-to-Bribdungla, in the central dead following mass flowering in –, and therefore and southern core zones of the Park. These transects were bamboo harvesting was relatively limited. selected because they traverse areas where prime red The extent and types of anthropogenic disturbances in panda habitat is juxtaposed with areas facing anthropogenic Phrumsengla National Park are comparable to those re- pressure from nearby human settlements. The two transects ported for many protected areas of Bhutan and other red span three major forest types (cool broadleaved, mixed coni- panda range countries. Our goal was to understand how fer, and fir) at ,–, m elevation. timber extraction and livestock grazing, two traditional sub- The km Dangyungma-to-Sengor transect is located in sistence activities permitted in many protected areas of this the Park’s central core zone and is part of Bhutan’s Lateral region, affect habitat use by red pandas. Road. The Lateral Road was built in as the nation’s Oryx, 2017, 51(4), 701–708 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000399 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 28 Sep 2021 at 01:54:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000399 The red panda in Bhutan 703 primary east–west highway. Within a m buffer of the tran- quadrats (tree species, tree diameter, and downed logs . sect there are national camps housing road maintenance cm diameter) and understorey quadrats (shrub species, % workers, who collect wood daily from the area for fuelwood bamboo cover and % shrub