Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 17 February 2020 | 12(2): 15262–15266
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5089.12.2.15262-15266
#5089 | Received 18 December 2019 | Final
received 30 January 2020 | Finally accepted 08 February 2020
First photographic evidence of
the Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhutan
Sonam Wangyel
1, Kumbu Dorji 2,
Sonam Tobgay 3& Norbu
Yangdon 4
1,2,3,4 Sakteng
Wildlife Sanctuary, Department of Forest and Park Services, Phongmey,
Trashigang, Bhutan.
1 sonamwangyel64@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 kumbu30@gmail.com, 3
tobgay88@gmail.com, 4 yangdonnorbu@gmail.com
Editor: Angie Appel,
Wild Cat Network, Bad Marienberg, Germany. Date of publication: 17 February
2020 (online & print)
Citation: Wangyel, S., K. Dorji,
S. Tobgay & N. Yangdon (2020). First photographic evidence of
the Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhutan. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(2): 15262–15266. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5089.12.2.15262-15266
Copyright: © Wangyel
et al. 2020. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the
management of Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary and the
staff of Merak and Sakteng
range offices for facilitating this survey within a short period of time.
Abstract: The Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii
is among Asia’s least studied wild felids.
We report the first photographic evidence of its presence in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, eastern Bhutan, where it was
recorded above 3,000m. The photographs
show three distinct colour morphs, viz., golden, buff
brown, and melanistic. The main threat
to the species in the sanctuary appears to be habitat loss due to increasing
developmental activities and land use change.
Future studies are needed to determine the conservation status of
Asiatic Golden Cats in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary.
Keywords: Camera trap, distribution, Merak, morphs, small wild cats, threats.
The Asiatic Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii has
been recorded in several range countries of the Himalaya including Nepal,
Bhutan, northeastern India, and Myanmar (Ghimirey
& Pal 2009; Bashir et al. 2011; Dhendup 2016;
Chatterjee et al. 2018; Mukherjee et al. 2019; Nijhawan
et al. 2019; Than Zaw et al. 2014). Elsewhere in southeastern Asia, it occurs in
Thailand, peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Vietnam, and Cambodia (McCarthy et al.
2015). It is listed as Near Threatened
on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss and poaching across its
range (McCarthy et al. 2015). Despite
its wide distribution, it is among the least studied felids in Asia (Ghimirey & Pal 2009; Dhendup
2016; Chatterjee et al. 2018). In
Bhutan, it has been recorded in seven of the country’s 10 protected areas (Dhendup et al. 2016).
It inhabits broadleaved
forests from an elevation of 150m in the southwest (Dhendup
& Dorji 2018) to montane forests at 4,282m in the
north (Dhendup et al. 2016). Most of this information was obtained during
camera trapping surveys targeting Tiger Panthera
tigris and Snow Leopard P. uncia
(Dhendup 2016).
Records outside the protected area network are limited to the campus of Ugyen Wangchuk Institute for Conservation and Environment
in central Bhutan (Vernes et al. 2015) and Gedu Territorial Forest Division in southwestern Bhutan (Dhendup & Dorji 2018).
Research on habitat and conservation requirements of the Asiatic Golden Cat has
not been carried out in the country (Dhendup 2016).
Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in eastern Bhutan represents
the eastern Himalayan temperate ecosystem and harbours
several globally threatened and endangered species—Tiger, Red Panda Ailurus fulgens,
Himalayan Musk Deer Moschus chrysogaster, Arunachal Macaque Macaca
munzala, Asiatic Black Bear Ursus
thibetanus, and Himalayan Serow
Capricornis thar—underlining
its importance for wildlife conservation (SWS 2016). Here we report the first records of the
Asiatic Golden Cat in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary
obtained during a camera trapping study to assess its diversity of wildlife.
Study
area
Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary was gazetted
in 2003 with the mandate to safeguard the rapidly degrading biodiversity of the
easternmost part of the country (SWS 2016).
It covers an area of 740.60km2 and comprises three major
habitat types from warm broadleaf, temperate, to alpine meadows, with elevation
ranging from approximately 1,500 to 4,500 m (SWS 2016). It hosts a diversity of 41 Rhododendron
species out of 46 recorded in the country, and is home to 39 mammal and 285
bird species (SWS 2016). Close to 5,000
people reside in 13 villages with 772 households in two ‘gewogs’ (Dzongkha:
block), one each in Merak and Sakteng
gewog (SWS 2016).
The temperature ranges
from 5.41°C in winter to 27.75°C in summer (Gyeltshen
2010). The monthly rainfall between
November and March is less than 50mm; it gradually increases from April onward
to a maximum of 300.74mm rain falling in July (Gyeltshen
2010).
Our study was carried
out in an area of 482.5km2 in the Merak
Range of Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (Fig. 1). Notable tree species in the study area are
Bhutan Fir Abies densa,
Quercus, Magnolia campbellii, Acer, Himalayan
Birch Betula utilis and rhododendron shrubs.
Materials
and Methods
A total of six HCO ScoutGuard SG560C
camera traps were deployed singly. They
were all attached to trees 20–30 cm above ground and placed opportunistically
along trails and ridge-lines to increase the probability of recording
wildlife. No baits or lures were
used. They were placed at least 2km away
from the nearest human settlements and 500m away from areas used as pastures
for livestock. The minimum distance
between camera traps was kept at 300m.
They were active for 24 hours and set to record only photographs with an
interval of five seconds between consecutive photos. Coordinates and elevations of the camera
trapping stations were recorded using a GPS Garmin E-trex
30 device set to WGS 84 datum. Camera
traps were checked once per month.
We define a notionally
independent event as an interval of at least 30 minutes between consecutive
photographs of the same individual Asiatic Golden Cat at the same camera trap
location.
Results
Camera traps were
installed from 2 July 2018 to 15 February 2019 at six locations ranging in
elevation from 3,000 to 3,700 m. Our
total survey effort was 824 camera trap days, with cameras being operational
for 224 days. Asiatic Golden Cats were
recorded at three camera trap stations in 12 independent events (Table 1),
showing three morphs (Images 1–4). They
were all photographed in forests dominated by Bhutan Fir, during the day in
eight independent events and by night in four independent events. The other three camera traps with no records
of Asiatic Golden Cat were placed 100–150 m away from pastureland where herders
stayed with their livestock.
Discussion
The present camera
trapping study in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary yielded
the first records of the Asiatic Golden Cat in eastern Bhutan. Our results show that at least three morphs
of the Asiatic Golden Cat inhabit the sanctuary’s forest above 3,000m. Previous authors reported the occurrence of
four morphs in Bhutan, namely golden, melanistic, spotted, and buff brown,
which has also been called grey morph (Wang 2007; Jigme 2011; Lyngdoh et al. 2011; Chakraborty et al. 2013; Dhendup 2016; Dhendup et al.
2016). Vernes
et al. (2015) reported all four morphs in the same study area in central Bhutan
at elevations of 3,200–3,900 m in forest dominated by Bhutan Fir, Himalayan
Birch, and Rhododendron. In contrast, Nijhawan et al. (2019) reported six morphs in Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India: golden, cinnamon,
grey, melanistic, spotted, and a dark patterned morph with tight rosettes. In Dibang Valley,
however, the patterned morphs appeared to be more common than solid colour morphs above 3,000m (Nijhawan
et al. 2019). An additional morph with
streaking called watermarked has been reported in peninsular Malaysia (Gumal et al. 2014).
Most of the independent
records of the Asiatic Golden Cat in our study area corroborate the foremost
diurnal activity pattern of the species described by Mukherjee et al.
(2019). In four of our 12 independent
records, however, the cat was photographed at night. Similar records after dark and before sunrise
were also obtained in central Bhutan (Vernes et al.
2015), in Dampa Tiger Reserve, India, (Gouda et al.
2016), in Myanmar (Than Zaw et al. 2014) and in
peninsular Malaysia (Gumal et al. 2014).
The main threat to
wildlife in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary appears to be
increased developmental activities such as construction of roads and electric
power transmission lines, which lead to habitat loss and fragmentation (SWS
2016). More than 85% of the people
living in the sanctuary practice a semi-nomadic lifestyle and use forest areas
as pasture for their livestock, mainly Yaks Bos grunniens
(SWS 2016). Though poaching of
Himalayan Goral and Musk Deer in the sanctuary has been reported in the past,
this has decreased considerably due to regular monitoring and awareness raising
activities carried out by the park officials.
To date, poaching of Asiatic Golden Cat has not been reported in the
sanctuary (SWS 2016). The impact of
habitat fragmentation and development projects on the sanctuary’s wildlife
needs to be assessed.
The Asiatic Golden Cat
is known to occur in Bhutan since autumn 2006 (Wang 2007). Yet, its habitat preferences and conservation
needs in the country have not been studied to date. We therefore recommend comprehensive research
focussed on the ecology of the Asiatic Golden Cat in
Bhutan. The results will form a basis
for developing a conservation action plan for the species in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary and other areas in the country.
Table 1. Details of Asiatic Golden Cats recorded in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary between July 2018 and February
2019.
Date and time |
Coordinates |
Elevation (m) |
Morph colour |
Independent events |
Wildlife recorded at this station |
19.x.2018, 11.23h; 8.xii.2018, 11.39h; 11.xii.2018, 10.04h; 12.xii.2018, 19.50h |
27.235°N, 92.001°E |
3,340 |
Melanistic (Image 1) |
4 |
Marbled Cat Pardofelis
marmorata, Yellow-throated Marten Martes flavigula, Red Panda Ailurus
fulgens, Dhole Cuon
alpinus, Southern Red Muntjac Muntiacus muntjak,
Himalayan Serow Capricornis
thar |
8.xi.2018, 08.32h; 9.xi.2018, 18.57h |
27.218°N, 91.958°E |
3,240 |
Buff brown (Image 2) |
2 |
Southern Red Muntjac, Himalayan Goral Naemorhedus goral, Kalij
Pheasant Lophura leucomelanos,
Red Fox Vulpes vulpes |
7.i.2019, 10.45h; 6.ii.2019, 08.12h |
Golden (Image 3) |
2 |
|||
16.xi.2018, 21.24h |
27.308°N, 91.741°E |
3,698 |
Golden |
1 |
Satyr Tragopan Tragopan satyra,
Southern Red Muntjac, Assam Macaque Macaca
assamensis, Himalayan Goral, Himalayan Serow |
9.xii.2018, 09.43h |
Buff brown |
1 |
|||
14.i.2019, 19.01h; 16.i.2019, 07.04h |
Golden (Image 4) |
2 |
For
figure & images - - click here
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