Using interviews and biological sign surveys to infer seasonal use of forested and agricultural portions of a human-dominated landscape by Asian elephants in Nepal
Understanding how wide-ranging animals use landscapes in which human use is highly heterogeneous is important for determining patterns of human–wildlife conflict and designing mitigation strategies.Here, we show how biological sign surveys in forested components of a human-dominated landscape can be combined with human interviews in agricultural portions of a landscape to provide a full picture of seasonal use of different landscape components by wide-ranging animals and resulting human–wildlife conflict. We selected Asian elephants (Elephasmaximus) in Nepal to illustrate this approach.
Sloth Bear Sightings as a Population Index in Chitwan National Park, Nepal
Sloth bears are an iconic species of Chitwan National Park, Nepal. They are known to make seasonal movements between the Churia Hills and floodplains of the Rapti and Narayani Rivers (Joshi et al. 1995). They were well studied in Chitwan during 1990s but their status in recent years is unknown. It is believed that the population of sloth bears is increasing in Chitwan based on frequent sightings and bear attacks on humans (Bishnu Lama, NTNC chief wildlife technician, pers. comm.). Sloth bears are also captured frequently in camera traps, which are deployed to study tigers (Dhakal et al.