Thus, India has a dual challenge of biodiversity conservation and goals of human well-being, including food security. Of the 1.3 billion population, over 200 million people live in forests and in fringe villages relying directly on forest resources for livelihood and nutritional needs. Parallel to the immense biodiversity is the high population of the country. In spite of this, all the major habitat types face pressure from rapid anthropogenic factors, including deforestation, habitat loss and conversion, land-use change, mega construction projects and indiscriminate hunting. India is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and hosts 10% of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots. We recommend targeted camera trapping near recent purported sightings of the other two bear species. We measured claw marks on climbed trees, a method used to differentiate sun bears from Asiatic black bears where both are known to occur however, this method turned out to be unreliable for detecting sun bears where their presence was unknown because sun bear-sized marks are not distinguishable from juvenile blackīears. Because these bears look somewhat alike, local people and government forest officers could not provide convincing accounts of the presence of more than one species. The local Garo language has words for three types of bears, and some local people reported theĬontinued presence of a small type of bear, possibly the sun bear, but the probable extirpation of sloth bears. Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are fairly common, and we sought to determine whether sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) and/or sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) also resided there. We investigated one of the few places in the world where three species of bears have been reported to co-occur at a fine scale: Balpakram National Park, Meghalaya, India. Determining the presence of rare species is difficult, and can be further confounded by the presence of a more common look-alike species. Additionally, conservation campaigns should be focused on the hunting groups along with locals, as the awareness level is poor in the region.Īt the most basic level, the assessment of a species’ status involves knowing where it Therefore, intensive study of the relationship between Cheer Pheasant and underlying threats is necessary.
The species has disappeared from some of the known locations where locals have observed them frequently in the past.
The main anthropogenic threats to the Cheer Pheasant's decline in Far Western Nepal include lure hunting, gunshot, egg collection, and forest fire. As a result of this work, Cheer Pheasant has been found in new locations in Nepal, including Pancheshwor Rural Municipality in Baitadi, Mangalsen Municipality in Achham and Badimalika Municipality in Bajura district. Therefore, from 2014 to 2016, a survey and informal interviews were conducted in Baitadi, Achham and Bajura districts of Far Western Nepal to learn more about the species' status, distributional range, and conservation challenges. Despite the species' occurrence being reported opportunistically, no fieldwork focusing on Cheer Pheasant has been carried out in Far Western Nepal. Furthermore, scientific research and conservation efforts for the Cheer Pheasant have been focused on a few Protected Areas (PAs), leaving behind the large distributional area that lies outside the PAs’ system. Snaring and hunting are the main causes for its decline in Nepal. Despite its global and national significance, it has been declining in Nepal, and other parts of its distribution range.
Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichii, is classified as rare and Vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as an Endangered species in the National Red List of Birds in Nepal, and one of the nine of Nepal's protected priority bird species. Pheasants remain one of the least studied and popular target species for hunters and trappers in many parts of Nepal.
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