Mammal richness and diversity in a Himalayan hotspot: the role of protected areas in conserving Bhutan’s mammals

• Published in: Biodiversity and conservation 2019-10, Vol.28 (12), p.3277-3297
• Main Authors: Dorji, Sangay, Rajaratnam, Rajanathan, Vernes, Karl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ailurus fulgens; Biodiversity; Biodiversity protection and reserves; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cameras; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Corridors; Ecology; Elephants; Elephas maximus; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered species; Entropy; Entropy (Information theory); Life Sciences; Mammals; Manis crassicaudata; Manis pentadactyla; Nature conservation; Original Paper; Panthera tigris; Protected areas; Rare species; Realignment; Small mammals; Species diversity; Species richness; Threatened species; Trachypithecus geei; Traps; Wildlife conservation
• ISSN: 0960-3115; 1572-9710
• DOI: 10.1007/s10531-019-01821-9

More than 51% of Bhutan is in a protected area (PA) network and our study demonstrates its effectiveness in conserving large and medium mammal species. We conducted camera trapping in Bhutan’s PAs, biological corridors (BCs) and intervening non-protected areas (NPAs) to investigate the richness and diversity of mammals, and assess the network’s efficacy in protecting mammals. 1858 camera traps were deployed within 1129 5-km × 5-km grids over 536 days between 2014 and 2015, resulting in 148,598 trap-nights (mean = 80 traps-nights/camera) which yielded nearly 10 million photos (mean = 5368 photos/camera trap). Fifty-six mammal species (65% of Bhutan’s 86 medium and large terrestrial mammal species) representing 18 families within seven orders were identified, of which, 18 (32.16%) are listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There was a significant difference in mammal diversity between PAs, BCs, and NPAs (PERMANOVA test; p