First camera-trap evidence of the Critically Endangered Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla in Kavrepalanchok community forests, Nepal NIS C H AL S HRESTHA1 , 2 ,S ADIP RAJ PANDEY1


S AN DEEP S HRE S TH A 2 and ASH I S H BASHYA L * 1


Abstract The Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla is cate- gorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List but lit- tle is known about its status in Nepal. Although indirect sign surveys have reported its presence in several community forests in Kavrepalanchok district, no photographic or video evidence has previously been documented.We used camera traps to in- vestigate the occurrence of pangolins in 20 community forests in PanautiMunicipality in Kavrepalanchok. A total of 75 0.01 km2 plotswere surveyed using camera traps during September 2022–February 2023,with a total survey effort of 803 trap-days. The cameras recorded a total of 16 individual video footage events of Chinese pangolins in six of the community forests. This is the first camera-trap evidence of the species’ presence in these forest patches, and in Kavrepalanchok district. The pangolins displayed behaviours such as sniffing, gathering plantmaterial and digging, between 18.00 and 1.00.The cam- era-trap records provide more accurate species identification and reliable information than indirect sign surveys, indicating camera traps are a useful surveying tool for rare, nocturnal and elusive pangolins.


Keywords Behaviour, camera trap, Chinese pangolin, com- mon leopard, Manis pentadactyla, Nepal, Panauti, presence


The supplementary material for this article is available at doi.org/10.1017/S0030605324000450


one of the most traded mammals globally, yet there is lim- ited knowledge of the species’ status throughout its range (Challender et al., 2019). Most studies of the Chinese pango- lin have relied on indirect sign surveys, which only provide information on matters such as habitat preferences and burrow density, and could be subject to observer bias (Khwaja et al., 2019;Willcox et al., 2019). The lack of detailed information on the species has hindered efforts to identify


T


he Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla is categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is


priority populations and implement appropriate conserva- tion strategies. Recent evidence suggests Nepal is both a source and tran-


sit location for the illegal pangolin trade (Paudel et al., 2020; Bashyal et al., 2021; Suwal et al., 2023). Approximately 94% of the potential habitat for the Chinese pangolin in Nepal lies outside protected areas, primarily in community forests (Sharma et al., 2020b). In the district of Kavrepalanchok, Bagmati province, these forests could provide important habitat for the Chinese pangolin, although this district has become a significant hub for illegal pangolin trade (Bashyal et al., 2021). Chinese pangolins have been reported fromsome community forests in Kavrepalanchok, through indirect sign surveys (Shrestha et al., 2021), but no photographic or video records have previously been reported. Here we provide the first camera-trap records of the Chinese pangolin, including details of activity patterns and behaviours, in community forests in Panauti Municipality, Kavrepalanchok (Fig. 1). We considered 26 community forests, c. 43% of the com-


*Corresponding author, a.bashyal@bioconnepal.org 1Biodiversity Conservancy Nepal, Rupandehi, Nepal 2Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal


Received 17 July 2023. Revision requested 12 October 2023. Accepted 4 March 2024. First published online 9 October 2024.


munity forests of PanautiMunicipality, as potentially suitable for a camera-trap survey, and conducted the survey in 20 of these, based on our observations of indirect pangolin signs, during September 2022–February 2023 (Fig. 1). The 118 km2 municipality lies at 1,340–2,782 maltitude, and 78 km2 is for- est. Using QGIS 3.22 (QGIS Development Team, 2023)we overlaid 25 600 × 600 msquares (0.36 km2, the approximate home range of the Chinese pangolin; Lu, 2005)onthe forested area, and within each square we overlaid a grid of 36 100 × 100 mplots.We did not survey areas with inaccess- ible, steep slopes or those over 2,000 m as pangolins are unlikely to use such locations (DNPWC & DoF, 2018). We randomly chose three of the plots within each square for foot surveys. In thesewe searched for indirect signs of pango- lins such as footprints, tracks and burrows. At burrowswhere we observed pangolin signs or tracks, we positioned an unbaited camera trap facing the entrance, on a nearby tree or on a pole, 30–50 cm above the ground. Six Browning Strike Force Apex (Browning Trail Cameras, USA), three Stealth Cam P14 (Stealth Cam, USA) and one Bushnell HD (Bushnell Outdoor Products, USA) cameras were set to re- cord 10-sec videos. All 10 camera traps operated for at least 10 days.We deployed nine cameras across three squares for at least 10 days at a time (three cameras in each of the three plots in a square). The remaining camera was rotated among the three squares, and functioned as a backup in case of


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Oryx, 2025, 59(1), 61–64 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324000450


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