Mainland leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis) population density in an unprotected mixed landscape of the Himalayan Foothills in Nepal

Abstract

The Mainland leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis) has a wide distribution, but little is known about its ecology in Nepal. We deployed 36 pairs of cameras for three weeks in 2020 in a non-protected area of the Nepalese Himalayan foothills. We obtained 18 leopard cat detections, however simultaneous detections on both anks never occurred. We used a multi-session spatially-explicit capture- recapture (SECR) model and a Spatial Partial Identity Model (SPIM) to estimate its population density, which was 10.74 (CI = 4.32–26.7) and 12.83 (CCI = 3.09–25.99) individuals per 100 km2, suggesting a healthy population for this area.