Estimating occupancy of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in a protected and non-protected area of Nepal

Chinese pangolin is the world’s most heavily trafficked small mammal for
luxury food and traditional medicine. Although their populations are
declining worldwide, it is difficult to monitor their population status
because of its rarity and nocturnal behavior. We used site occupancy
(presence/absence) sampling of pangolin sign (i.e. active burrows) in a
protected (Gaurishankar Conservation Area) and non-protected area
(Ramechhap district) of central Nepal with multiple environmental
covariates to understand factors that may influence occupancy of Chinese
pangolin. The average Chinese pangolin occupancy and detection
probabilities was Ψ ± SE = 0.77 ±0.08; p  ± SE =0.27 ± 0.05
respectively. The detection probabilities of Chinese pangolin was higher
in PA ( p  ± SE =0.33 ± 0.03) than compared to non-PA ( p
 ± SE =0.25 ± 0.04). The most important covariates for Chinese
pangolin detectability were red soil (97%), food source (97.6%), distance
to road (97.9%), Protected Area (97%) and with respect to occupancy was
elevation (97.9%). We recommended use of remote cameras and potentially
GPS collar surveys to further investigate habitat use and site occupancy
at regular intervals to provide more reliable conservation assessments.