ISSN 1027-2992 I Special Issue I N° 13 | Spring 2019 Pallas'sCAT cat Status Reviewnews & Conservation Strategy 02 CATnews is the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, Editors: Christine & Urs Breitenmoser a component of the Species Survival Commission SSC of the Co�chairs IUCN/SSC International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is pu���� Cat Specialist Group lished twice a year, and is availa�le to mem�ers and the Friends of KORA, Thunstrasse 31, 3074 Muri, the Cat Group. Switzerland Tel ++41(31) 951 90 20 For joining the Friends of the Cat Group please contact Fax ++41(31) 951 90 40 Christine Breitenmoser at [email protected] <urs.�[email protected]�e.ch> <ch.�[email protected]> Original contri�utions and short notes a�out wild cats are welcome Send contributions and observations to Associate Editors: Ta�ea Lanz [email protected]. Guidelines for authors are availa�le at www.catsg.org/catnews This Special Issue of CATnews has �een produced with Cover Photo: Camera trap picture of manul in the support from the Taiwan Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau, Kot�as Hills, Kazakhstan, 20. July 2016 Fondation Segré, AZA Felid TAG and Zoo Leipzig. (Photo A. Barashkova, I Smelansky, Si�ecocenter) Design: �ar�ara sur�er, werk’sdesign gm�h Layout: Ta�ea Lanz and Christine Breitenmoser Print: Stämpfli AG, Bern, Switzerland ISSN 1027-2992 © IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group The designation of the geographical entities in this pu�lication, and the representation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or �oundaries. CATnews Special Issue 13 Spring 2019 chapter 5 TASHI DHENDUP1,2*, BIKRAM SHRESTHA3,4, NEERAJ MAHAR5, SHEKHAR KOLIPAKA6, GANGA nates from Google Earth to map the species RAM REGMI7 AND RODNEY JACKSON8 distribution and calculating the Area of Oc- cupancy AOO. The distribution points were Distribution and status of the also categorised as historical (< 2000) and contemporary (≥ 2000) and wherever pos- manul in the Himalayas and sible into "confirmed" (C1), "probable" (C2) and "possible" (C3) records according to the China SCALP criteria (Molinari-Jobin et al. 2012). Only contemporary data inclusive of C1, C2 In this article, we used published and grey literature and expert observations to re- and C3 records was used to calculate AOO view the distribution and conservation status of the Near Threatened Pallas’s cat or (Table 1). However, due to the low number manul Otocolobus manul in Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal. The species appears of recent records, the estimated AOO was widespread in China; however, distribution in the Himalayas is patchy and not clear- unrealistically small. Therefore, we have ly understood. Recent sightings and camera trap records from north Sikkim in India also included estimates of the extant and and Bhutan extend the species range to the east of the Himalayas and suggest a possibly extant range of the Pallas’s cat in wider distribution than previously thought. Nevertheless, the population size and the region from the range-wide data of the trend in the region remain unknown. The Pallas’s cat is likely to be threatened by most recent IUCN Red List Assessment (Ross habitat degradation and fragmentation from traditional pastoralism, unregulated et al. 2016; Fig. 1) which includes expert tourism, infrastructural developments such as roads and petrochemical industry, and opinions. The AOO was estimated using Ge- also by poaching (including their prey). Climate change is also an emerging threat to ospatial Conservation Assessment Tool, also the species although the potential impacts remain uncertain. Moreover, the species known as GeoCAT (Bachman et al. 2011), an remains one of the lesser known wild cats, and in-place research and monitoring are online open-source, browser-based tool used highly lacking. There is a strong need for active conservation actions and dedicated in IUCN Red List Assessments. To calculate studies on their presence and distribution followed by a more detailed investigation the AOO, we applied a 5 x 5 km2 grid based of their ecology and the impact of ongoing anthropogenic activities. on the average home range size of female Pallas’s cats in Mongolia, which is around Pallas’s cat is known to occur widespread Methods 25 km2 (Ross et al. 2016). in China (Nowell & Jackson 1996, Jutzeler Information for this assessment was accrued 31 et al. 2010). However, their distribution in from published and grey literature, expert ob- Distribution the Trans-Himalayan regions of India to Ne- servations and through a standardised ques- We gathered a total of 358 locality records in pal and Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas is tionnaire survey developed by the IUCN SSC the current assessment out of which we could fragmented and also represent the southern Cat Specialist Group which was completed confirm only 35 as C1, one as C2 and two as limit of the species range. Records in this by Pallas's cat experts from Bhutan, India, C3. The rest were too coarse to correctly ca- range are mostly recent and sparse, and and Nepal. We reached out to researchers in tegorise and so were grouped together as re- information on Pallas's cats is currently re- China but unfortunately could not find anyone cords of unknown category. Most of these are stricted to ad-hoc presence records (mainly actively involved with the species. Therefore, historical data prior to the year 2002. Never- from snow leopard surveys) and incidental the status of Pallas's cat from China was theless, China is un-doubtedly the stronghold sightings (e.g. Thinley 2013, Shrestha et al. solely based on literature review and infor- of the species in the region with 334 location 2014). There are many studies on the ecolo- mation acquired from traceable sources such points. Bhutan has the least with only three gy of its primary prey, pika Ochotona spp., as as the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, Pallas’s records. Unlike China where the distribution well as on high altitude rangeland ecology, Cat Working Group (http://www.wild-cat. is widespread, distribution in the Himalayas especially in China (e.g. Smith et al. 1986, org/manul/pallas-cat/#), iNaturalist (https:// is discontinuous relatively restricted to one or Smith et al. 1990, Smith & Wang 1991, www.inaturalist.org) and other information two locations in each country, which appear Smith & Foggin 1999, Lai & Smith 2003, outlets including blogs and news. Some of highly isolated from each other. We were Hogan 2010, Guo et al. 2012) but very few the records had only locality references, so also able to accrue a decent amount of his- on Pallas’s cat. It is evident that the species we had to obtain approximate GPS coordi- torical data from China, but we could find is rare, occurs at low density and is highly vulnerable to disturbances from rangeland Table 1. Number of historical (year < 2000) and contemporary (year ≥ 2000) records of habitat degradation and destruction (Ross Pallas’s cats, Area of Occupancy, and extant and possibly extant areas in each country in et al. 2016). Therefore, given the dearth of the study region. information on Pallas’s cat, there is a strong Historic Contemporary AOO Extant Possibly need to take stock of what is known about Country Total (km²) the species. This will improve our under- records records (km²) (km²) extant (km²) standing of Pallas’s cat status in the region Bhutan NA 3 75 7,619 0 7,619 and help guide conservation interventions. China 255 80 1,825 932,609 991,172 1,923,781 In this article, we review the distribution India 2 8 200 20,861 8,053 28,914 and conservation status of Pallas’s cat in Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. Nepal 1 10 125 8,965 1 8,966 Pallas's cat Status Review & Conservation Strategy distribution and status in the Himalayas & China very few from India and Nepal and none from in the following years, including a nation- Published records after 2010 have come from Bhutan (Table 1). Pallas’s cat continues to wide high-elevation tiger Panthera tigris sur- the Tibetan Plateau north of Rouergai in Si- be reported in the region except for Bhutan vey in 2014 and a nationwide snow leopard chuan Province. Sightings were made in 2011, where the species has not been recorded survey in 2015 failed to gather any additional 2012 (Webb et al. 2014) and then in 2015 and since 2012. The AOO estimates for each Pallas’s cat records. 2016 (Webb et al. 2016). Sightings by tour- country in the region were produced from ists and wildlife-watching tourism operators 100 contemporary records (> 2000) resulting China with photographic evidence have also been in an unrealistically small estimated AOO China has approximately 50% of the pre- reported from other parts of the country: an of 2,225 km² for the region. However, the ap- sumed global distribution range of Pallas's adult with two kittens near the Qinghai Lake proximate extant and possibly extant areas cat (Jutzeler et al. 2010, Ross et al. 2016). in Qinghai (Townshend 2016), an adult with of the species in the countries of the region They can be found in northern, western and four kittens in the Bayan Bulag Grassland, sum up to 970,054 km2 and 999,226 km2 res- central China, in the Altai Mountains (Ross et Xinjiang (New China TV, 2018), Bortala Mon- pectively. al. 2016), and on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau gol Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang (Mallon 2002).