Population Status, Occupancy and Distribution Modelling of Cheer Pheasant (Catreus wallichii) in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Nepal

Abstract

The Cheer pheasant (Catreus wallichii) is a threatened species listed as vulnerable in IUCN Red list and legally protected by the Government of Nepal. The conservation of this species is of great importance worldwide and regular monitoring of its status and distribution are necessary. This study was done to assess the population status and estimate occupancy patterns in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, as well as to identify potentially suitable habitat of Cheer in Nepal. The study was conducted during the breeding season i.e. May and October 2013. Dawn call count method was used to obtain the population status; and detection and non-detection survey was done to estimate the occupancy of Cheer. The occupancy data was analyzed in the program PRESENCE. Habitat suitability was predicted throughout Nepal using a MaxEnt modeling approach, combining presence-only data. Population data revealed that Dhorpatan valley still supports significant population of Cheer with overall density of 7.08 pairs/ Km vii

2 , but the population is in declining trend.

Total population size of the species was found to be 143156 pairs. Occupancy modeling revealed that the distance to water had greater weight in

determining occupancy. Distribution modeling

indicated smaller area (1.20%) was most suitable for the species occurrence in Nepal. Most of the habitat of Cheer is discontinuous mostly occurred in patchy habitat in the Western Nepal. Thus, Community based conservation program, regular monitoring, survey in potential habitat and its protection will be crucial to achieving the conservation goal.