Suitable habita of yellow throated Maten (Martes flavigula) in lower Sun-Koshi river basin, Nepal

Abstract

Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula, order- carnivora, family- mustelidae) is a very adaptable medium sized carnivore that is widely distributed over northern eastern globe. Their diet and habitats are diverse. Despite its wide distribution and ecological importance, it is one of the least studied species. So, this study aimed to identify the distribution of yellow-throated marten (YTM), to predict its suitable habitat and to identify the important environmental variables for the prediction of its distribution in Lower Sunkoshi River Basin, central Nepal. Total area of the basin was divided into 190 grids of 3×3 km 2 each and a line transect survey was done to collect the species occurrence data. Two to three transects, each of about 1000 m were traversed in 26 selected grids. The total 72 (37 from indirect signs, 33 from interviewee and 2 from opportunistic sightings) occurrence points were recorded for the species in the study area. A total of 13 predictor variables and the 72 species occurrence points were used to run the species distribution model under maximum entropy (MaxEnt) algorithm with settings of bootstrapping 100 replicates, regularization multiplier of 1 and background points of 10000 points with threshold rule of Maximum training sensitivity plus specificity. The score of AUC was 0.967 indicating good performance of the model. A total of 430 km 2 (11%) area in the Lower Sunkoshi River Basin was found to be suitable habitat for the YTM. The predicted suitable habitat ranged between the elevation 428 m and 3027 m a.s.l. The model suggested that suitable habitat for the YTM lies in mosaic type of habitats that are mixture of shrubland, cropland and forests. The five of the most important predictors of YTM distribution were, maximum temperature of warmest month, slope, topographic wetness index, above ground biomass and isothermality. This study has identified the potential distribution areas and their major predictors for the YTM in the Lower Sunkoshi River Basin. However, future research using additional survey methods including camera traps for such cryptic species might provide more detailed distribution records and use of additional environmental variables and multiple algorithms for modeling the potential distribution might yield better predictions.