Using distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of group-living and solitary mountain ungulates

Throughout the Himalaya, mountain ungulates are threatened by hunting for meat and body parts, habitat loss, and competition with livestock. Accurate population estimates are important for conservation management but most of the available methods to estimate ungulate densities are difficult to implement in mountainous terrain. Here, we tested the efficacy of the recent extension of the point transect method, using camera traps for estimating density of two mountain ungulates: the group-living Himalayan blue sheep or bharal Pseudois nayaur and the solitary Himalayan musk deer Moschus leucogaster. We deployed camera traps in 2017–2018 for the bharal (summer: 21 locations; winter: 25) in the trans-Himalayan region (3,000–5,000 m) and in 2018–2019 for the musk deer (summer: 30 locations; winter: 28) in subalpine habitats (2,500–3,500 m) in the Upper Bhagirathi basin, Uttarakhand, India. Using distance sampling with camera traps, we estimated the bharal population to be 0.51 ± SE 0.1 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.31) in summer and 0.64 ± SE 0.2 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.37) in winter. For musk deer, the estimated density was 0.4 ± SE 0.1 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.34) in summer and 0.1 ± SE 0.05 individuals/km2 (CV = 0.48) in winter. The high variability in these estimates is probably a result of the topography of the landscape and the biology of the species. We discuss the potential application of distance sampling with camera traps to estimate the density of mountain ungulates in remote and rugged terrain, and the limitations of this method.

Comparison of the fecal microbiota composition between the blue Sheep (Pseudois nayaur) fed with Lolium perenne and Sorghum sudanense

Lolium perenne L. and Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf. are two common forages fed to the captive blue sheep. However, the effect of these two forages on the gastrointestinal microbiota is largely unknown. We analyzed the microbiota diversity in feces of the captive blue sheep fed with L. perenne (F1) and S. sudanense (F2) by 16S rRNA sequencing. A total number of 20 major phyla and 29 genera fecal bacterial communities were detected in the two groups. The F1 and F2 groups shared common microbiota at the phylum level, which mainly consisted of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005, Eubacterium_coprostanoligenes_group, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-013 and Ruminococcaceae_UCG-010 were top four dominant taxa at the genus level. The percentage of Ruminococcaceae_UCG-010 in F2 was significantly higher than that in F1 (~2.75 fold). The diversity and abundance of the microbial community in F2 were higher than that in F1. Although both of the L. perenne and S. sudanense effect the blue sheep gastrointestinal microbiota metabolism, the S. sudanense improves more aspects in metabolism and biogenesis. In summary, our results demonstrated that the L. perenne and S. sudanense effect the blue sheep gastrointestinal microbiota in different ways. But S. sudanense efficiently improved the blue sheep gastrointestinal microbiota.