Chinese pangolin in Nepal 63


PLATE 1 Camera-trap video stills of the Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla from community forests in Panauti Municipality, Kavrepalanchok district, Nepal (Fig. 1).


of the 20 community forests surveyed (Birta, Chaleshwori, Chunkhani, Dhungandada, Indreshwori and Simle Bheer; Plate 1). This is the first camera-trap evidence of the presence of the Chinese pangolin in these areas.On average, it took 1.6 days for a camera trap to record a Chinese pangolin. In the total of 22.47 minutes of video footage, Chinese pangolins had a peak of activity between 18.00 and 1.00. Camera-trap videos captured Chinese pangolins ap-


proaching, looking inside and entering burrows (often leav- ing shortly afterwards), exiting burrows tail- or head-first, and in two instances entering a burrow but not emerging. Pangolins were twice recorded collecting plant material, which they accumulated between their ventral side and limbs and then dragged inside the burrow, entering tail first. One pangolin spent 14 minutes digging in a pre- existing burrow, accumulating soil material between its ventral part and limbs, and eventually exiting the burrow tail-first with the soil. It then left the burrow. In one video, a pangolin emerged from its burrowin a quadrupedal manner, engaged in bipedal sniffing, and then returned to the burrow. Masked palm civets Paguma larvata and yellow-throated martens Martes flavigula were recorded in Chinese pangolin burrows, indicating potential use of pan- golin burrows by other species. In addition to the Chinese pangolin we obtained videos of nine other mammal species (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Plate 1). Our camera-trap survey in Panauti Municipality con-


firmed the presence of the Chinese pangolin in the commu- nity forests of Kavrepalanchok, and provided information on the activity patterns and behaviour of the species. Although the Chinese pangolin has been recorded by cam- era traps in other regions of Nepal (Dhital et al., 2020;


Khatiwada et al., 2022), use of camera traps to study the spe- cies in Nepal is uncommon. Our findings indicate that camera traps are a useful tool for studying the rare, elusive and largely nocturnal Chinese pangolin, and facilitates iden- tification of the species in areas where both the Chinese and Indian pangolins occur. We are now using data from camera-trap surveys to gain a better understanding of Chinese pangolins in the study area and more widely through occupancy modelling.


Acknowledgements We thank The Rufford Foundation, Society for Conservation Biology and Idea Wild for funding this project; Narayan Prasad Koju for identifying species; and the Division Forest Office and the participating community forests of Panauti Municipality for help and support.


Author contributions Study design: NS, SS, AB; fieldwork: NS, SRP; data analysis: NS, SS, AB; writing: NS, AB; revision: all authors.


Conflicts of interest None.


Ethical standards This research was conducted with permission from the Division Forest Office, Kavrepalanchok, followed appropriate ethical standards for camera trapping (Sharma et al., 2020a), and abided by the Oryx guidelines on ethical standards. The cameras only recorded wildlife.


Data availability The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, AB, upon reasonable request.


References


BASHYAL, A., SHRESTHA, N., DHAKAL, A., KHANAL, S.N. & SHRESTHA,S.(2021) Illegal trade in pangolins in Nepal: extent and network. Global Ecology and Conservation, 32,e01940.


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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