Urjit Bhatt‡, B.S. Adhikari§, Salvador Lyngdoh‡Corresponding author: Urjit Bhatt ( urjit@wii.gov.in ) Corresponding author: Salvador Lyngdoh ( salvador@wii.gov.in ) Academic editor: Abhijeet Bayani © Urjit Bhatt, B.S. Adhikari, Salvador Lyngdoh. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Bhatt U, Adhikari B, Lyngdoh S (2022) Monitoring diversity and abundance of mammals with camera-traps: a case study of Manas National Park, Assam, India. Check List 18(5): 1023-1043. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.5.1023 |  |
Information on the status and distribution of species within a geographical area is vital for developing effective conservation plans. We conducted camera-trapping (n = 473) to determine diversity, species composition, relative abundance index, sampling effort, and conservation status of mammals in forested habitats of Manas National Park, Assam, India. Camera stations accumulated data over 11,388 trap nights over three sampling years: 2017–2019. Camera-traps recorded 34 mammalian species belonging to seven orders, 15 families, and 29 genera, with 22,738 independent records. Among them, 17 species are globally threatened or 50% of the recorded species. The species accumulation curve reached an asymptote, indicating an adequate sampling design for obtaining a robust inventory of the mammalian community. Despite a history of ethnopolitical conflict, almost all mammals expected to occur in the park were detected. Our study will enable future evaluations of the recovery process in terms of changes in mammal abundance over time.