Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Climate change threatens striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) distribution in Nepal

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Mammal Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 09 January 2024

This article has been updated

Abstract

Climate change can be expected to alter ecosystems and influence the spatial distribution of species. Understanding the effects of climate change on species distribution can help develop effective conservation protocols to tackle further biodiversity loss. Striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) global populations appear to follow an overall decreasing trend as the species faces numerous threats. Hyena presence location data was collected, and we utilized a Maxent species distribution model to predict current and future distribution patterns in Nepal. We used two distinct representative concentration pathway (RCP) values (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) to determine potential impacts on hyena distribution. We found that hyena current suitable habitat in Nepal extends over 22,000 km2 and is projected to significantly decrease in both (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) scenarios. In terms of habitat reduction, we further showed that RCP 8.5 was more adverse than RCP 4.5. We found that the Chure hills and the Terai regions hold the largest extent of hyena habitat in Nepal. Hyena habitat reduction was comparatively lower within the protected areas. Future projections, however, portend severe consequences for the species’ survival as suitable habitat areas will be drastically reduced in the next 50 years. Further research on hyena microhabitat suitability under anthropogenic and topographic variables will be useful for future conservation policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

References

  • Akay AE, Inac S, Yildirim IC (2011) Monitoring the local distribution of striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena L.) in the eastern mediterranean region of Turkey (Hatay) by using GIS and remote sensing technologies. Environ Monit Assess 181:445–455

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alam MS, Khan JA, Pathak BJ (2015) Striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) status and factors affecting its distribution in the Gir National Park and Sanctuary India. Folia Zoologica 64(1):32–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allouche O, Tsoar A, Kadmon R (2006) Assessing the accuracy of species distribution models: prevalence, kappa and the true skill statistic (TSS). J Appl Ecol 43:1223–1232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almasieh K, Mohammadi A, Alvandi R (2022) Identifying core habitats and corridors of a near threatened carnivore, striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena) in southwestern Iran. Sci Rep 12(1):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angerbjörn A, Eide NE, Dalén L, Elmhagen B, Hellström P, Ims RA, …, Henttonen H (2013) Carnivore conservation in practice: replicated management actions on a large spatial scale. J Appl Ecol 50(1):59–67

  • Araújo MB, Alagador D, Cabeza M, Nogués-Bravo D, Thuiller W (2011) Climate change threatens European conservation areas. Ecol Lett 14:484–492

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Baek HJ, Lee J, Lee HS, Hyun YK, Cho C, Kwon WT et al (2013) Climate change in the 21st century simulated by HadGEM2-AO under representative concentration pathways. Asia-Pac J Atmos Sci 49:603–618

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbet-Massin M, Jiguet F, Albert CH, Thuiller W (2012) Selecting pseudo-absences for species distribution models: how, where and how many? Methods Ecol Evol 3:327–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellard C, Bertelsmeier C, Leadley P, Thuiller W, Courchamp F (2012) Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity. Ecol Lett 15:365–377

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari S, Bhusal DR, Psaralexi M, Sgardelis S (2021a) Habitat preference indicators for striped hyena (Hyaenahyaena) in Nepal. Global Ecol Conserv 27:e01619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari S, Bhusal DR (2017) Notes on human-hyena (Hyaena hyaena, Linnaeus 1751) conflict in Jajarkot, Kalikot and Mahottari districts of Nepal. J Instr Sci Technol 22:127–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari S, Chalise MK (2016) People’s attitudes toward striped hyaena (Hyaenahyaena Linnaeus, 1758)(Mammalia: Carnivora: Hyaenidae) conservation in lowland Nepal. J Threatened Taxa 8:9125–9130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari S, Morley C, Aryal A, Shrestha UB (2020) The diet of the striped hyena in Nepal’s lowland regions. Ecol Evol 10(15):7953–7962

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari S, Youlatos D, ThapamagarT BDR (2021b) Shrinking striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena Linnaeus, 1758) distribution in Nepal. Eur J Wildl Res 67:1–4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonan GB (2008) Forests and climate change: forcings, feedbacks, and the climate benefits of forests. Science 320(5882):1444–1449

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buras A, Menzel A (2019) Projecting tree species composition changes of European forests for 2061–2090 under RCP 45 and RCP 85 scenarios. Front Plant Sci 9:1986

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chaturvedi R K, Joshi J, Jayaraman M, Bala G, Ravindranath N H (2012) Multi-model climate change projections for India under representative concentration pathways. Curr Sci 791–802

  • Chichorro F, Juslén A, Cardoso P (2019) A review of the relation between species traits and extinction risk. Biol Cons 237:220–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dadashi-Jourdehi A, Shams-Esfandabad B, Ahmadi A, Rezaei HR, Toranj-Zar H (2020) Predicting the potential distribution of striped hyena Hyaenahyaena in Iran. Belg J Zool 150(1):185–195

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Minin E, Slotow R, Hunter LT, MontesinoPouzols F, Toivonen T, Verburg PH, …, Moilanen A (2016) Global priorities for national carnivore conservation under land use change. Sci Rep 6(1):1–9

  • DNPWC (2020) Department of National park and Wildlife Conservation, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of Nepal, Annual Report Fiscal year 2076–2077. Nepal, Kathmandu

    Google Scholar 

  • Elith J, H Graham C, P Anderson, R, Dudík M, Ferrier S, Guisan A, ... E. Zimmermann N. (2006). Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data. Ecography 29: 129-151

  • Elith J, Phillips SJ, Hastie T, Dudík M, Chee YE, Yates CJ (2011) A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Divers Distrib 17:43–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrington JD, Li J (2016) Climate change impacts on snow leopard range. In Snow Leopards (pp. 85–95). Academic Press

  • Fick SE, Hijmans RJ (2017) Worldclim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. Int J Climatol

  • Hannah L, Flint L, Syphard AD, Moritz MA, Buckley LB, McCullough IM (2014) Fine-grain modeling of species’ response to climate change: holdouts, stepping-stones, and microrefugia. Trends Ecol Evol 29:390–397

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heino J, Grönroos M (2013) Does environmental heterogeneity affect species co-occurrence in ecological guilds across stream macroinvertebratemeta communities? Ecography 36:926–936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hetem RS, Fuller A, Maloney SK, Mitchell D (2014) Responses of large mammals to climate change. Temperature 1:115–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hotta M, Tsuyama I, Nakao K, Ozeki M, Higa M, Kominami Y et al (2019) Modeling future wildlife habitat suitability: serious climate change impacts on the potential distribution of the Rock Ptarmigan Lagopusmuta japonica in Japan’s northern Alps. BMC Ecol 19:1–14

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Inkley DB, Anderson MG, Blaustein AR, Burkett V, Felzer B, Griffith B et al (2004) Global climate change and wildlife in North America. Tech Rev 04–2:1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2014) Climate Change Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC: Geneva, Switzerland

  • Jones M, Bertola LD, Razgour O (2016) Predicting the effect of interspecific competition on habitat suitability for the endangered African wild dog under future climate and land cover changes. Hystrix, Italian J Mammal 27(1)

  • Lamsal P, Kumar L, AtreyaK PKP (2017) Vulnerability and impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems in Nepal: A review. Ambio 46:915–930

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lawing AM, Polly PD (2011) Pleistocene climate, phylogeny, and climate envelope models: an integrative approach to better understand species’ response to climate change. PLoS ONE 6(12):e28554

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lee H J, Lee O S, Woo DG, Kim H N, Wallace MC, Jo Y S (2021) Current distribution and habitat models of the yellow-throated marten, Martes flavigula, in South Korea. Mammal Res 1–13

  • Levinsky I, Skov F, Svenning JC, Rahbek C (2007) Potential impacts of climate change on the distributions and diversity patterns of European mammals. Biodivers Conserv 16(13):3803–3816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu C, White M, Newell G (2013) Selecting thresholds for the prediction of species occurrence with presence-only data. J Biogeogr 40:778–789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazaris AD, Papanikolaou AD, Barbet-Massin M, Kallimanis AS, Jiguet F et al (2013) Evaluating the connectivity of a protected areas’ network under the prism of global change: the efficiency of the European Natura 2000 network for four birds of prey. PLoS ONE 8(3):e59640

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meinshausen M, Smith SJ, Calvin K, Daniel JS, Kainuma ML, Lamarque JF et al (2011) The RCP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions from 1765 to 2300. Clim Change 109:213–241

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Millar CI, Stephenson NL, Stephens SL (2007) Climate change and forests of the future: managing in the face of uncertainty. Ecol Appl 17(8):2145–2151

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MoFSC (2014). National biodiversity strategy and action plan. Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

  • Parmesan C, Yohe G (2003) A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature 421:37–42

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Paudel B, Zhang YL, Li SC, Liu LS, Wu X, Khanal NR (2016) Review of studies on land use and land cover change in Nepal. J Mt Sci 13:643–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paudyal K, Baral H, Lowell K, Keenan RJ (2017) Ecosystem services from community-based forestry in Nepal: realising local and global benefits. Land Use Policy 63:342–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearce J (2000) Ferrier S. Evaluating the predictive performance of habitat models developed using logistic regression. Ecological Modeling 133:225–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson RG, Raxworthy CJ, Nakamura M, Townsend Peterson A (2007) Predicting species distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar. J Biogeogr 34:102–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson AT, Papeş M, Eaton M (2007) Transferability and model evaluation in ecological niche modeling: a comparison of GARP and Maxent. Ecography 30:550–560

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips SJ, Anderson RP, Schapire RE (2006) Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modeling 190:231–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Psaralexi MK, Votsi N-EP, Selva N, Mazaris AD, Pantis JD (2017) Importance of roadless areas for the european conservation network. Front Ecol Evol 5:2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2021) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria

  • Rezaei S, Mohammadi A, Malakoutikhah S, Khosravi R (2022) Combining multiscale niche modeling, landscape connectivity, and gap analysis to prioritize habitats for conservation of striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena). PLoS ONE 17(2):e0260807

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Segan DB, Murray KA, Watson JE (2016) A global assessment of current and future biodiversity vulnerability to habitat loss–climate change interactions. Global Ecology and Conservation 5:12–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suel H, Mert A, Yalcinkaya B (2018) Changing potential distribution of gray wolf under climate change in lake district. Turkey Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 16(5):7129–7137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas CD, Cameron A, Green RE, Bakkenes M, Beaumont LJ, Collingham YC, Williams SE (2004) Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427(6970):145–148

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas CD, Cameron A, Green RE, Bakkenes M, Beaumont LJ, Collingham YC, Erasmus BF, De Siqueira MF, Grainger A, Hannah L, Hughes L (2004b) Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427(6970):145–148

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thuiller W, Broennimann O, Hughes G, Alkemade JRM, Midgley GF, Corsi F (2006) Vulnerability of African mammals to anthropogenic climate change under conservative land transformation assumptions. Glob Change Biol 12(3):424–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thuiller W, Lavorel S, Araújo MB, Sykes MT, Prentice IC (2005) Climate change threats to plant diversity in Europe. Proc Natl Acad Sci 102:8245–8250

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Uddin K, Shrestha HL, Murthy MSR, Bajracharya B, Shrestha B, Gilani H, … Dangol B (2015) Development of 2010 national land cover database for the Nepal. J Environ Manage 148:82–90

  • Urban MC (2015) Accelerating extinction risk from climate change. Science 348(6234):571–573

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Putten WH, Macel M, Visser ME (2010) Predicting species distribution and abundance responses to climate change: why it is essential to include biotic interactions across trophic levels. Philos Trans R Soc B 365(1549):2025–2034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • vanVuuren DP, Edmonds J, Kainuma M et al (2011) The representative concentration pathways: an overview. Clim Change 109:5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Velásquez-Tibatá J, Salaman P, Graham CH (2013) Effects of climate change on species distribution, community structure, and conservation of birds in protected areas in Colombia. Reg Environ Chang. 13(2):235–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visser ME, Both C (2005) Shifts in phenology due to global climate change: the need for a yardstick. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 272(1581):2561–2569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang B, Yim SY, Lee JY, Liu J, Ha KJ (2014) Future change of Asian-Australian monsoon under RCP 4.5 anthropogenic warming scenario. Clim Dyn 42:83–100

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilmers CC, Getz WM (2005) Gray wolves as climate change buffers in Yellowstone. PLoS Biol 3(4):e92

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Worth JR, Harrison PA, Williamson GJ, Jordan GJ (2015) Whole range and regional-based ecological nichemodels predict differing exposure to 21st century climate change in the key cool temperate rainforest treesouthern beech (N othofaguscunninghamii). Austral Ecol 40:126–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan H, Feng L, Zhao Y, Feng., Wu D, Zhu C. (2020) Prediction of the spatial distribution of Alternantheraphiloxeroides in China based on ArcGIS and MaxEnt. Global Ecology and Conservation 21:e00856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahoor B, Liu X, Ahmad B, Kumar L, Songer M (2021) Impact of climate change on Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and its autumn diet in the northern highlands of Pakistan. Glob Change Biol 27(18):4294–4306

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Department of Forestry, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Kathmandu, Nepal, for granting the study permit #2075-2076-13 and the Nagao Natural Environment Foundation for providing the funds necessary for this study. Special thanks to the people involved in camera trap work for this hyena conservation project between 2014 and 2021. We also thank S Michelle and S Suresh for their critique of an earlier version of this manuscript. We are thankful to two anonymous reviewers for the valuable comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Shivish Bhandari

  2. Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Shivish Bhandari

  3. Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal

    Binaya Adhikari

  4. Government of Nepal Divisional Forest Office, Kaski, Nepal

    Kedar Baral

  5. Ministry of Industry, Forest, Environment and Tourism, Kaski, Nepal

    Saroj Panthi

  6. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Ripu M. Kunwar

  7. Natural Science Society, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Tilak Thapamagar

  8. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Michelle Szydlowski

  9. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Maria Psaralexi & Dionisios Youlatos

  10. Central Department of Zoology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Daya Ram Bhusal

Authors
  1. Shivish Bhandari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Binaya Adhikari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kedar Baral
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Saroj Panthi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ripu M. Kunwar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tilak Thapamagar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Michelle Szydlowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Maria Psaralexi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Daya Ram Bhusal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Dionisios Youlatos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Bhandari S: Conceptualization, funding, methodology (equal), writing-original draft (equal), writing-review & editing (equal). Adhikari B: Conceptualization, methodology (equal), writing-original draft (equal), writing-review & editing (equal). Baral K: methodology (equal); writing, reviewing, and editing (equal), supervision (equal). Pantrhi S: methodology (equal); writing, reviewing, and editing (equal), supervision (equal). Kunwar R. M: methodology (equal), writing, reviewing, and editing (equal), supervision (equal). Thapamagar T: methodology (equal), writing-original draft (equal), reviewing, and editing (equal). Szydlowski M: writing, reviewing, and editing (equal). Psaralexi M: methodology (equal), writing, reviewing, and editing (equal). Bhusal D. R: methodology (equal), writing, reviewing, and editing (equal), supervision (equal). Youlatos D: writing, reviewing, and editing (equal), supervision (equal).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shivish Bhandari.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by: Andrzej Zalewski

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article was revised: Szydlowski, M has been added as co-author of this article.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 17 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhandari, S., Adhikari, B., Baral, K. et al. Climate change threatens striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) distribution in Nepal. Mamm Res 67, 433–443 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-022-00638-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-022-00638-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation