Journey to the Leopard land: Life in Kathmandu valley

Yatra chituwa bhumi ko: kathmandu upatyaka ko jiwan

यात्रा चितुवा भुमिको: काठमाण्डौ उपत्यकाको जीवन

I work at Center for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN), a conservation genetics lab in Nepal, as bioinformatics specialist since 2015. I have been involved in research works on Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris) at CMDN since then. Through this research, I got introduced into the world of conservation genetics specializing my skills in population genetics through various computational tools mainly STRUCTURE software. This exposure helped me gain the knowledge about how powerful tools like population genetics can be used to study ecology of an apex predator across a landscape they range. Bengal tigers are found across Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in southern plains of Nepal, where their populations are fragmented mainly into three geographical divisions by various anthropogenic features. The landscape genetics study of the tigers across TAL clearly revealed that these populations have three main genetic subdivisions and a moderate level of gene flow affected by habitat fragmentation. CMDN also collaborates with NGOs, INGOs and researchers from national and international academic institutions to study population genetics of snow leopard (Panthera uncia). Through these involvements, I have got the chance to review various ways of studying these charismatic big cats that play a vital role in their respective ecosystems using tools of molecular ecology.

Big cats have always fascinated me since my childhood. Specifically, the leopard (Panthera pardus; in nepali: Chituwa, चितुवा) has had an important impact from earlier part of my life. I grew up in Kathmandu hearing news about leopard encounters just about 5km distance away from my house. These incidents I believe have left a deep impact in my mind. Now that I am into wildlife research, I started realizing that these particular cats, unlike its two congeneric cousins (tiger and snow leopard), are not given the same priority although they play an equally important role in their ecosystem. Big cats across the globe are being increasingly threatened due to various human activities, and it is our duty to help secure their future for the sake of greater ecosystem health. Being on top of the food chain, big cats help to keep numbers of herbivores in check and thus regulates their population, which in turn will affect the sound distribution of flora in the forests. They are an excellent example of ecosystem engineers. Thus, every big cat is equally important and worth the protection for the benefit of whole ecosystem including all flora and fauna within it.

I realized that I needed to do something for these neglected big cats (leopards) that calls my hometown its home too since ages and generations. I started hiking in the forests of surrounding hills in Kathmandu valley. These hikes played huge role to grow my deep passion towards leopards. It helped me train my skills of tracking various signs that these elusive cats left in their territory. I still remember that moment when I saw my first ever pugmark of a leopard in a small forest patch just about 1 km away from nearest human settlement in the hills of Kathmandu. My enthusiasm and curiosity increased that led me find many more interesting signs of leopards around the valley. I started taking notes and recording these data which helped me develop my field biology skills unknowingly. Conclusively, all of these were helping me to understand leopards better than any written materials would have had, although I regularly and unreservedly refer to various books and literatures for acquiring knowledge about their ecology, behavior and evolutionary enigmas. They are one masterpiece creation of nature that is currently under threat. They need us and it is our duty to secure their future not just for them, but for the mountains that depend upon them.

My boss, Dr Dibesh Karmacharya, came up with an idea of developing a molecular tool that can identify as well as differentiate multiple felid species genetically in single assay. I started working in silico on reference genome sequences of wild felids and soon enough designed a molecular assay to identify and differentiate multiple species of felids using PCR technique. Experiments were carried out to validate these assays in the lab. Along this effort, I started putting up a proposal for Rufford Small Grant in order to test these tools on actual field collected non-invasive genetic samples (scats/poops) and study the wild felids around Kathmandu valley. This would also help me in my passion driven research endeavor to study leopards. Thankfully, the Rufford Foundation generously decided to fund us in our effort to develop such tool and study the wild felids around Kathmandu valley, which would aid most importantly in the field of leopard conservation. I am immensely thankful to the Rufford Foundation for providing such a great source of encouragement. My nice colleagues and good friends played huge role in supporting me throughout this path to help me secure this grant that will now allow me to achieve my goal. By studying these cats in the mountains I have hiked, breathed and lived, I hope to understand about their amazing secretiveness and elusiveness but mainly their evolutionary antiquity that has shaped them into such a magnificent beast ever appeared on the planet.

I fully dedicate this project to these big cats of Kathmandu valley. My journey that started long time ago just attained a kick-start height in the stepping-stone. And I look forward to continue explore the surmounting nature that beholds these enigmatic wild cats and many other walks of life. To the leopard, for the Chituwa. 

Jai Chituwa!

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Hide and seek with the Mountain Ghost: Snow leopard

Following Mountain Ghost's Trail

An expedition to collect non-invasive samples of wild yaks (Bos mutus) and domestic yaks (Bos grunniens) for genetics study took us to the remote trans-Himalayas of upper Mustang. Yaks are high-altitude bovids specialized on vegetation growing only at high elevation meadows in the Tibetan Plateau. To meet our research motives, we ventured through challenging terrains, reaching to about 5,200 meters above sea level. The barren rocky cliffs, deep river valleys, steep and rolling terrains and alpine steppes in the trans-Himalayas were our home for 16 days.

We travelled through treacherous paths (I often found no paths at all). But the breath-taking and pristine landscapes made us forget all the hardships. No doubt, the ghosts of the mountains prowl in wake of dusk and dawn amidst the narrow gorges and the rocky terrains. As mythical as the Yeti, the snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are very difficult to see in their natural habitat as they are perfectly camouflaged in the mountain landscape, hence their nickname "The Mountain Ghost". Yet the presence of these magnificent cats could be felt through the signatures they left behind in form of scats, scrapes, and pugmarks. Reaching close to these signs in the intriguing terrains pose unavoidable challenges and difficulties. My regular experiences of tracking leopard (Panthera pardus) signs in the hills of Kathmandu have always been interesting. The diverse information on the “God's Pet” brought to my notice, by Naresh Kusi (my friend, brother & colleague), during our shared times always added to my fascination. Snow leopards are not much different from leopards, their mid-hill cousin. But the terrains they roam are stunning. I was seeing the hard and rocky surfaces, steep slopes, creepy and rough vegetation for the first time ever in my life and I was filled with joy and marvel to find myself amidst such a heart-warming landscape.

We walked up and down the cliffs but also had some relaxing moments in the flat Plateaus of the alpine steppes. But the 'Queen of the Himalayas' usually prefers to roam through the challenging precipices. Having come up all the way to such a pristine land, we could not let go the chances of revealing some tracks of the 'Phantom'. We endured the mountain spirit and ventured through the ghost's highway. Believe me; it was extremely adrenaline-rushing. I felt like giving up so many times.

Most of the signs we came across (scats in general) were old. We did find a couple of scrapes which gave us pleasant feeling to realize that the 'Ghost' was silently watching us from somewhere nearby. As days passed, we started descending towards a river valley traversing through gigantic cliffs and awe-inspiring gorges.

The second last camp set on the bank of Chodzong khola (river) in Chodzong valley had something in store for me. The moist soil (clay/sand) by the river bank presented a perfect place to look for pugmarks. Here Naresh dai and I chose different areas to explore; he climbed through an almost 75° slope to reach a table like depression among the mighty cliffs while I, having given up the seemingly dangerous attempt midway, roamed along the river banks. Like a stalking cat, I scanned through every crevice along the numerous cliff bases. Bingo! At the end of the soft sandy river bank my treasure hunt met its desired fate. A long reaching track of the snow leopard struck my eyes. I almost burst with tears of happiness to have finally located perfect pugmarks of the charismatic mountain cat. The fact that the animal might have had recently walked through the site, elevated my joy. This exciting moment of standing 'victorious' by the tracks of the mountain ghost carved an ecstatic imprint in my memory, which I will cherish for a long time ahead.


PHOTOS:

Pugmarks of snow leopard by a river bank:

















Scat deposits of snow leopard:

Scrape markings of snow leopard on its territory:

Remains of kills:

Domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) with bite mark on throat

Skull of a blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) (Nepali: Naur)

Habitat of snow leopard:

Our Horse Team members:

From left: Shakpa, Dhoma & Mhourro

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EPILOGUE:

This expedition was led by Naresh Kusi, Researcher at Resources Himalaya Foundation (RHF) and Principal Investigator of Wild Yak Research project, funded by his individual Research Grant provided by The Rufford Foundation, UK. I joined him as project's Co-investigator and genetics/bioinformatics expert  from Center for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN). We were accompanied by Aakash Nath Upraity, Student researcher at University of Oregon. Additionally, our team was supplemented by Ramu dai (cook), Lakpa baje (horse man), and three horses.
Time: July/August 2017.

Special mentions (words of thanks):

Naresh Kusi, Researcher at RHF;

Dibesh Karmacharya, Executive Director at CMDN;

Sulochana Manandhar, Lab Manager at CMDN;
Ajay Narayan Sharma, Senior Research Associate at CMDN;

Jyoti Joshi, Wildlife Program Manager at CMDN;
Bishwo Parakarma Shrestha, Field Manager at CMDN;
And all my colleagues at CMDN.

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Owl festival and the fishing cat encounter !!!

Owl Festival 2017 at Jagadishpur Reservoir Ramsar site

I went to attend Nepal Owl Festival 2017 at Jagadishpur, Kapilvastu (mid-west lowland Nepal) along with my work colleague, Nagendra (Awasthi) dai. We traveled in night bus, and reached the festival site the next morning by 7am. The festival went well with nature and bird watching program early in the morning and followed by various cultural programmes later in the day. The Jagdishhpur reservoir is one huge wetland lake and a ramsar site important for numerous migratory and resident water birds.

During the birding sessions, over 30 species of birds were spotted that included bar-headed goose, bean goose, gray lag goose, asian open-bill, ruddy-shelduck, ferruginous duck to name some by expert birders. During the night, lot of calls of owls was heard. I was also excited about this place that it is a known habitat for fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus), they had been recorded (Sagar Dahal et al. 2014) in and around the lake area. Most of the time, I was wondering about their presence around and really wanted to go track their signs.

So, in this 2nd day of the festival after our morning birding session, I insisted Nagendra dai to go and hunt down their tracks in a nearby small shallow pond which was wet and easy to access. As we walked through the edges, a carnivore scat was encountered, which i believe should be of jackal (unsure), I didn't have the feeling of it to be of a felid because its morphology was quite different than my pet cat's feces (which I am much familiar with). As we went by, we spotted small felid pugmarks, it was a joyful moment. We went ahead, and again spotted even more fresh tracks in a pretty wet area of the pond. In this second encounter, you could also tell the path the cat walked through, it clearly looked as if the cat was climbing up the slope into the edge from the shallow area, the claw marks were intact in the tracks. I took photographs and GPS through my mobile device. As soon as we returned to the festival area, I showed it to Yadav (Ghimirey) dai, he confirmed it to be most likely of fishing cat based on habitat and size of the track. This made my day having tracked a fishing cat track. We attended the festival program and enjoyed our rest of the day in the festival area, I volunteered by putting owl stamp to children and adults too. The festival ended well with messages of owl conservation and awareness among the local communities with many other fun-filled local cultural and entertainment activities.

The next day, we were bound to return early morning. We woke up and got ready by 5.30am when we finally started to move towards bus stop. We had some really good friends who helped us in reaching bus stop at time (by waking up early themselves) by dropping us through bike. I and Nagendra dai started walking and almost covered half way to the bus stop when Kaushal (Yadav) dai took us in his bike (double-load). He was riding very slowly, and suddenly we noticed something move, there the guys started to shout out with joyous voices, then Kaushal bro called "fishing cat". It was a blessing moment of our journey I would say. As we were leaving the place, a fishing cat showed it to us, we were able to see it as it ran through the farm-field and into a bush nearby where it disappeared.

As we reached the bus stop, we excitingly informed it to Yadav dai, who was already there. This joyous moment wouldn't have been possible if Yadav dai had not insisted me to come to the festival. My huge thanks to him, and rest of all Friends of Nature team for organizing such a wonderful festival. This sighting was my second live sighting of a wild cat in the wild.

CITED ARTICLE:
Sagar Dahal et al, SMCRF (2014). Status of Fishing cat in Jagadishpur Reservoir and Ghodaghodi Lake and assessment of threat.

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PHOTOS:

Fig 1: habitat area (shallow pond), where we tracked for signs

Fig 2: pugmark spot 1

Fig 3: pugmark spot 2

Fig 4: pugmarks (claw-marks intact), claws would protract as the cat insist on climbing through slope

Fig 5: slope at edge of the pond, arrows showing tracks with claw-marks

Fig 6: carnivore scat in edge of the pond

Fig 7: Jagadishpur Reservoir

Fig 8: Map showing locations of pugmarks and live sighting of fishing cat (Google Earth Pro image)

Fig 9: Owl face painting was one of the attractions in the festival

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