Distribution of leopard cats in the nearest mountains to urban Beijing and its affecting environmental factors

doi:10.17520/biods.2024138

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) is a small felid widespread in Asia and serves as a primary predator in North China’s temperate forest ecosystem, after the mega-carnivores such as the leopard went extinct from the region. Despite its ecological resilience and adaptivity, whether the leopard cat can survive in nearest proximity to urban Beijing remains unknown. Field surveys of the presence of leopard cats in the suburban Beijing and evaluation of the environmental factors associated with its distribution will set the stage for elucidating the pattern of human-wildlife coexistence around a megacity of China like Beijing.

Methods: From October 2022 to June 2023, we conducted 16 transect line surveys in search of leopard cats in the nearest mountainous area west of urban Beijing. The region refers to the Western Beijing Crescent Bay Mountains that covers the wilderness landmarks of Mt. Baiwang-Fragrant Hills-West Mountains-Mt. Jiufeng-Mt. Yangtai-Mt. Miaofeng-Mt. Fenghuangling-Baihujian. The presence of leopard cats was examined through non-invasive sampling of scat samples, DNA extraction, and species identification based on DNA barcoding analysis. By integrating species presence information and eight selected environmental variables, we constructed an ensemble model to assess the impact of various environmental factors on the species distribution.

Results: We validated 258 sites of leopard cat presence from cumulative 180 km trails in the Western Beijing Crescent Bay Mountains survey area. For a relatively continuous habitat, the occurrence of leopard cats was primarily influenced by anthropogenic variables, with the distance to artificial infrastructure (42.71%) and hiking intensity (20.12%) being the two primary factors. A buffer distance of at least 1,000 m from major human facility was required for a habitat to be considered suitable for leopard cats around Beijing. While the distance to artificial infrastructure displayed a positive correlation with the presence of leopard cats, hiking intensity exerted relatively little impact, suggesting the leopard cat’s tolerance to moderate human activities to certain extent.

Conclusions: The existence of a wild leopard cat population is confirmed in the mountainous area on the outskirts of Beijing, illustrating the prospect for human-wildlife co-existence around China’s capital city. This preliminary survey suggests that as far as relatively intact habitat could be preserved on a landscape scale with minimum anthropogenic disturbance, a generalist species such as the leopard cat may be ecologically resilient enough to survive in nearest proximity to an urban region.

Key words: Western Beijing Crescent Bay Mountains, leopard cat, human-wildlife coexistence, non-invasive genetic sampling, species distribution model

Sicheng Han, Daowei Lu, Yuchen Han, Ruohan Li, Jing Yang, Ge Sun, Lu Yang, Junwei Qian, Xiang Fang, Shu-Jin Luo. Distribution of leopard cats in the nearest mountains to urban Beijing and its affecting environmental factors[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2024, 32(8): 24138.

Add to citation manager EndNote|Ris|BibTeX

URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2024138

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2024/V32/I8/24138

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1 Fecal sampling sites of leopard cats in the shallow mountainous area west of urban Beijing

Table 1 The environmental variables used for species distribution model construction

分类 Classification	环境变量 Environmental variable	代码 Code	空间分辨率 Spatial resolution	来源 Source	方差膨胀因子 VIF
生境结构 Habitat structure	坡度 Slope	Slo	30 m × 30 m	Digital Elevation Model	2.91
	增强植被指数 Enhanced vegetation index (EVI)	Evi	250 m × 250 m	NASA MODIS	1.78
	到水域的距离 Distance to waterways	Dwt	30 m × 30 m	Open Street Map	1.47
	草地占比 Percentage of grassland area	Pgl	100 m × 100 m	GLC_FCS30-1985_2020	1.88
	阔叶林占比 Percentage of broadleaved forest area	Pbf	100 m × 100 m	GLC_FCS30-1985_2020	3.11
	针叶林占比 Percentage of needle-leaved forest area	Pnf	100 m × 100 m	GLC_FCS30-1985_2020	1.57
人类干扰 Human interference	到人类设施的距离 Distance to artificial facilities	Daf	30 m × 30 m	Open Street Map/GLC_FCS30- 1985_2020	1.89
人类干扰 Human interference	徒步强度 Hiking intensity	Hit	100 m × 100 m	深圳市两步路信息技术有限公司 Shenzhen Liangbulu Information Technology Co., Ltd	1.04

Fig. 2 Values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and the true skill statistics (TSS) for 10 species distribution models (SDMs). ANN, Artificial neural networks; CTA, Classification tree analysis; FDA, Flexible discriminant analysis; GAM, Generalized additive models; GBM, Generalized boosted models; GLM, Generalized linear models; MARS, Multivariate adaptive regression splines; MaxEnt, Maximum entropy; RF, Random forests; SRE, Surface range envelope.

Fig. 3 Contribution of eight environmental variables to the distribution of leopard cats. Evi, Enhanced vegetation index; Pgl, Percentage area of grassland; Pnf, Percentage area of needle-leaved forest; Pbf, Percentage area of broadleaved forest; Slo, Slope; Dwt, Distance to waterways; Daf, Distance to artificial facilities; Hit, Hiking intensity.

Fig. 4 Response curves of environmental variables for leopard cats in the shallow mountainous area west of urban Beijing. EVI, Enhanced vegetation index.

References 56

[1]	Allouche O, Tsoar A, Kadmon R (2006) Assessing the accuracy of species distribution models: Prevalence, Kappa and the true skill statistic (TSS). Journal of Applied Ecology, 43, 1223-1232.
[2]	Benítez-López A, Alkemade R, Schipper AM, Ingram DJ, Verweij PA, Eikelboom JAJ, Huijbregts MAJ (2017) The impact of hunting on tropical mammal and bird populations. Science, 356, 180-183. DOI PMID
[3]	Brook BW, Sodhi NS, Ng PKL (2003) Catastrophic extinctions follow deforestation in Singapore. Nature, 424, 420-423.
[4]	Chasen FN (1925) A preliminary account of the mammals of Singapore Island (during 1925). Singapore Naturalist, 5, 74-89.
[5]	Chen MT, Liang YJ, Kuo CC, Pei KJC (2016) Home ranges, movements and activity patterns of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) and threats to them in Taiwan. Mammal Study, 41, 77-86.
[6]	Chua MAH, Sivasothi N, Meier R (2016) Population density, spatiotemporal use and diet of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in a human-modified succession forest landscape of Singapore. Mammal Research, 61, 99-108.
[7]	Coudrat CNZ, Nanthavong C, Sayavong S, Johnson A, Johnston JB, Robichaud WG (2014) Non-Panthera cats in Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, Lao PDR. Cat News, SI8, 45-52.
[8]	Davison GW, Ng PK, Ho H (2008) The Singapore Red Data Book: Threatened Plants & Animals of Singapore. Nature Society, Singapore.
[9]	DeLong ER, DeLong DM, Clarke-Pearson DL (1988) Comparing the areas under two or more correlated receiver operating characteristic curves: A nonparametric approach. Biometrics, 44, 837-845. PMID
[10]	Diao YX, Zhao QQ, Weng Y, Huang ZX, Wu YQ, Gu BJ, Zhao Q, Wang F (2022) Predicting current and future species distribution of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in Shanghai, China. Landscape and Urban Planning, 228, 104581.
[11]	Dormann CF, Elith J, Bacher S, Buchmann C, Carl G, Carré G, Marquéz JRG, Gruber B, Lafourcade B, Leitão PJ, Münkemüller T, McClean C, Osborne PE, Reineking B, Schröder B, Skidmore AK, Zurell D, Lautenbach S (2013) Collinearity: A review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography, 36, 27-46.
[12]	Fan YQ, Yang J, Zhang HL, Jiang J, Jiang WJ, Tang SP, Bao WD (2020) Food composition of medium sized carnivores in Beijing Songshan Nature Reserve. Journal of Biology, 37(1), 59-62. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[范雅倩, 杨婧, 张洪亮, 蒋健, 蒋万杰, 唐书培, 鲍伟东 (2020) 北京松山自然保护区中型捕食动物的食物构成分析. 生物学杂志, 37(1), 59-62.]
[13]	Ghimirey Y, Ghimire B, Pal P, Koirala V, Appel A (2012) Status of felids in Makalu-Barun National Park, Nepal. Cat News, 56, 23-27.
[14]	Ghimirey Y, Petersen W, Jahed N, Akash M, Lynam AJ, Kun S, Din J, Nawaz MA, Singh P, Dhendup T, Chua MAH, Gray TNE, Phyoe Kyaw P (2022) Prionailurus bengalensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: eT18146A212958253 https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T223138747A226150742.en. (accessed on 2024-04-01)
[15]	Gómez RS, Pérez JG, Martín MDL, García CG (2016) Collinearity diagnostic applied in ridge estimation through the variance inflation factor. Journal of Applied Statistics, 43, 1831-1849.
[16]	Hou RZ (2014) An Historical Geography of Peiping. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing. (in Chinese and in English)
	[侯仁之 (2014) 北平历史地理. 外语教学与研究出版社, 北京.]
[17]	Ian C (1979) An Evaluation of the Changes of Bird and Mammal Populations after 6 Years of Hunting Ban Enforcement in Taiwan. Tung-Hai University Press, Taichung.
[18]	Izawa M, Doi T, Nakanishi N, Teranishi A (2009) Ecology and conservation of two endangered subspecies of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) on Japanese islands. Biological Conservation, 142, 1884-1890.
[19]	Jiang ZG, Wu Y, Liu SY, Jiang XL, Zhou KY, Hu HJ (2021) China’s Red List of Biodiversity:Vertebrates. Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese and in English)
	[蒋志刚, 吴毅, 刘少英, 蒋学龙, 周开亚, 胡慧建 (2021) 中国生物多样性红色名录: 脊椎动物. 科学出版社, 北京.]
[20]	Jnawali S, Baral H, Lee S, Acharya K, Upadhyay G, Pandey M, Griffiths J (2011) The Status of Nepal Mammals: The National Red List Series. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Kathmandu.
[21]	John FAS, Mai CH, Pei KJC (2015) Evaluating deterrents of illegal behaviour in conservation: Carnivore killing in rural Taiwan. Biological Conservation, 189, 86-94.
[22]	Kim K, Yikweon J, Borzée A (2021) Update on the range of leopard cats in the Republic of Korea. Cat News, 72, 38-39.
[23]	Lesmerises F, Déry F, Johnson CJ, St-Laurent MH (2018) Spatiotemporal response of mountain caribou to the intensity of backcountry skiing. Biological Conservation, 217, 149-156.
[24]	Liang HZ, Wen J, Wang MZ, Lan X, Lin DY, Zhou XW, Bao WD (2015) Bird diversity survey and analysis at Xishan Forest Unit in Beijing. Journal of Biology, 32(3), 63-67. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[梁洪柱, 温静, 王敏增, 兰欣, 林大影, 周许伟, 鲍伟东 (2015) 北京市西山试验林场鸟类多样性调查与分析. 生物学杂志, 32(3), 63-67.]
[25]	Lim BL (1999) The distribution, food habits and parasite patterns of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Peninsular Malaysia. The Journal of Wildlife and Parks, 17, 17-27.
[26]	Liu LY, Zhang X (2021) 2020 Global 30 m Surface Coverage Fine Classification Products. Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
	[刘良云, 张肖 (2021) 2020年全球30米地表覆盖精细分类产品. 中国科学院空天信息创新研究院, 北京.] ttps://data.casearth.cn/dataset/6123651428a58f70c2a51e49. (accessed on 2023-12-01)
[27]	Luo SJ (2021) The hidden Olympic spectator. Science, 373, 404.
[28]	Lynam AJ, Jenks KE, Tantipisanuh N, Chutipong W, Ngoprasert D, Gale GA, Steinmetz R, Sukmasuang R, Bhumpakphan N, Grassman LI, Cutter P, Kitamura S, Reed DH, Baker MC, McShea W, Songsasen N, Leimgruber P (2013) Terrestrial activity patterns of wild cats from camera-trapping. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 61, 407-415.
[29]	McCullough D (1974) Status of Larger Mammals in Taiwan. Tourism Bureau, Taipei.
[30]	Miller SG, Knight RL, Miller CK (2001) Wildlife responses to pedestrians and dogs. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 29, 124-132.
[31]	Mills LS, Soule ME, Doak DF (1993) The keystone-species concept in ecology and conservation. BioScience, 43, 219-224.
[32]	Mohamed A, Sollmann R, Bernard H, Ambu LN, Lagan P, Mannan S, Hofer H, Wilting A (2013) Density and habitat use of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in three commercial forest reserves in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Journal of Mammalogy, 94, 82-89.
[33]	Neilly H, Schwarzkopf L (2017) The response of an arboreal mammal to livestock grazing is habitat dependant. Scientific Reports, 7, 17382. DOI PMID
[34]	Pin C, Phan C, Kamler JF, Rostro-García S, Penjor U, In V, Crouthers R, MacDonald EA, Chou S, MacDonald DW (2022) Density and occupancy of leopard cats across different forest types in Cambodia. Mammal Research, 67, 287-298.
[35]	Power ME, Tilman D, Estes JA, Menge BA, Bond WJ, Mills LS, Daily G, Castilla JC, Lubchenco J, Paine RT (1996) Challenges in the quest for keystones. BioScience, 46, 609-620.
[36]	R Core Team (2021) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
[37]	Rajaratnam R, Sunquist M, Rajaratnam L, Ambu L (2007) Diet and habitat selection of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis borneoensis) in an agricultural landscape in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 23, 209-217.
[38]	Rho PH (2009) Use of GIS to develop a multivariate habitat model for the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in mountainous region of Korea. Journal of Ecology and Environment, 32, 229-236.
[39]	Ritchie EG, Johnson CN (2009) Predator interactions, mesopredator release and biodiversity conservation. Ecology Letters, 12, 982-998.
[40]	Roemer GW, Gompper ME, Van Valkenburgh B (2009) The ecological role of the mammalian mesocarnivore. BioScience, 59, 165-173.
[41]	Ross J, Brodie J, Cheyne S, Hearn A, Izawa M, Loken B, Lynam A, McCarthy J, Mukherjee S, Phan C, Rasphone A (2015) Prionailurus bengalensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T18146A50661611. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T18146A212958253.en. (accessed on 2021-12-01).
[42]	Rytwinski T, Soanes K, Jaeger JAG, Fahrig L, Findlay CS, Houlahan J, van der Ree R, van der Grift EA (2016) How effective is road mitigation at reducing road-kill? A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 11, e0166941.
[43]	Salemaa M, Hotanen JP, Oksanen J, Tonteri T, Merilä P (2023) Broadleaved trees enhance biodiversity of the understorey vegetation in boreal forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 546, 121357.
[44]	Santiapillai C, Supraham H (1985) On the status of the leopard cat (Felis bengalensis) in Sumatra. Tigerpaper (FAO/RAPA), 12, 8-13.
[45]	Scott DM, Gemita E, Maddox TM (2004) Small cats in human modified habitats landscapes in Sumatra. Cat News, 40, 23-25.
[46]	Shao XN, Lu Q, Liu MZ, Xiong MY, Bu HL, Wang DJ, Liu SY, Zhao JD, Li S, Yao M (2021) Generalist carnivores can be effective biodiversity samplers of terrestrial vertebrates. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19, 557-563.
[47]	Silmi M, Putra K, Amran A, Huda M, Fanani AF, Galdikas BM, Anggara SP, Traeholt C (2021) Activity and ranging behavior of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) in an oil palm landscape. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9, 651939.
[48]	Sunquist M, Sunquist F (2017) Wild Cats of the World. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
[49]	Tang XM, Zhang DH, Ma ZH, Wu TL, Zhang YS, Bao WD (2016) Camera trapping survey on ground-dwelling birds and mammals of spring and winter in Beijing Wulingshan Nature Reserve. Chinese Journal of Zoology, 51, 751-760. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[汤小明, 张德怀, 马志红, 吴同路, 张源笙, 鲍伟东 (2016) 北京雾灵山自然保护区冬春季地面活动鸟兽红外相机初步调查. 动物学杂志, 51, 751-760.]
[50]	Thapa K, Pradhan NMB, Berker J, Dhakal M, Bhandari AR, Gurung GS, Rai DP, Thapa GJ, Shrestha S, Singh GR (2013) High elevation record of a leopard cat in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal. Cat News, 58, 26-27.
[51]	Thuiller W, Lafourcade B, Engler R, Araújo MBJE (2009) BIOMOD—A platform for ensemble forecasting of species distributions. Ecography, 32, 369-373.
[52]	Xia F, Yang J, Li J, Shi Y, Gai LX, Huang WH, Zhang JW, Yang N, Gao FL, Han YY, Bao WD (2022) Gut bacterial composition of four leopard cat subpopulations in Beijing. Biodiversity Science, 30, 22103. (in Chinese with English abstract) DOI
	[夏凡, 杨婧, 李建, 史洋, 盖立新, 黄文华, 张经纬, 杨南, 高福利, 韩莹莹, 鲍伟东 (2022) 北京地区四个豹猫亚种群肠道菌群的组成. 生物多样性, 30, 22103.] DOI
[53]	Xiong MY, Shao XN, Long Y, Bu HL, Zhang D, Wang DJ, Li S, Wang RJ, Yao M (2016) Molecular analysis of vertebrates and plants in scats of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Southwest China. Journal of Mammalogy, 97, 1054-1064.
[54]	Yan LL (2023) Investigation and analysis of wild vascular plant resources in Haidian District of Beijing. Chinese Wild Plant Resources, 42(10), 90-95. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[闫亮亮 (2023) 北京市海淀区野生维管束植物资源调查与分析. 中国野生植物资源, 42(10), 90-95.]
[55]	Zeng YC, Zhang JD, Hull V (2019) Mixed-method study on medicinal herb collection in relation to wildlife conservation: The case of giant pandas in China. Integrative Zoology, 14, 604-612. DOI PMID
[56]	Zhang YS, Jiang WJ, Jiang J, Wang D, Wu JG, Liu FM, Bao WD (2017) Biodiversity monitoring of understory birds and mammals in Beijing Songshan National Nature Reserve. Chinese Journal of Wildlife, 38, 367-375. (in Chinese with English abstract)
	[张源笙, 蒋万杰, 蒋健, 王丹, 吴记贵, 刘芳茗, 鲍伟东 (2017) 北京松山国家级自然保护区林下鸟类和兽类多样性动态监测. 野生动物学报, 38, 367-375.]