Search

Cheer pheasant is a globally vulnerable species mainly found in the mid-montane grassland of the western Himalayas. Such grasslands are spread sporadically, and the distribution of this species too, as a result, has remained patchy. Using Maxent, we investigated the distribution of cheer across its global range (Pakistan, India, and Nepal) to determine a potential distribution range. The model predicted that higher altitude (increasing probability peaking at 2060 m) and land cover categories of needleleaf evergreen forests, grasslands, barren and stony terrain, and croplands were the likely predictors of cheer pheasant occurrence. The model predicted a total potential distribution range of 3137.9 km2, most of which lies in India. Interestingly, most areas within this range fall outside the protected areas network and are thus unprotected. The habitat of cheer is believed to require some form of continual disturbance, either naturally or by human intervention, to remain suitable for the species. Given the fact that most of its habitat lies outside the protected areas and the species tolerates limited amount of disturbance to its habitat, the future of the cheer is likely to be in the outside protected areas, provided that extremes of habitat change are limited and hunting is curtailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kashmir musk deer Moschus cupreus (KMD) are the least studied species of musk deer. We compiled genetically validated occurrence records of KMD to construct species distribution models using Maximum Entropy. We show that the distribution of KMD is limited between central Nepal on the east and north-east Afghanistan on the west and is primarily determined by precipitation of driest quarter, annual mean temperature, water vapor, and precipitation during the coldest quarter. Precipitation being the most influential determinant of distribution suggests the importance of pre-monsoon moisture for growth of the dominant vegetation, Himalayan birch Betula utilis and Himalayan fir Abies spectabilis, in KMD's preferred forests. All four Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios result an expansion of suitable habitat in Uttarakhand, India, west Nepal and their associated areas in China in 2050s and 2070s but a dramatic loss of suitable habitat elsewhere (Kashmir region and Pakistan-Afghanistan border). About 1/4 th of the current habitat will remain as climate refugia in future. Since the existing network of protected areas will only include a tiny fraction (4%) of the climatic refugia of KMD, the fate of the species will be determined by the interplay of more urgent short-term forces of poaching and habitat degradation and long-term forces of climate change.