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Wild sheep and livestock in Nepal Trans-Himalaya: coexistence or competition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2008

RINJAN SHRESTHA  and
PER WEGGE
RINJAN SHRESTHA*
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, PO Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway World Wildlife Fund Nepal, PO Box 7660, Kathmandu, Nepal
PER WEGGE
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, PO Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway
*
*Correspondence: Dr R. Shrestha email: rinjan@gmail.com
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Summary

Excessive grazing by livestock is claimed to displace wild ungulates in the Trans-Himalaya. This study compares the seasonal diets and habitat use of sympatric wild naur Pseudois nayaur and domestic goat Capra hircus, sheep Ovis aries and free-ranging yak Bos grunniens in north Nepal and analyses their overlap both within and across seasons. Alpine meadow and the legumes Oxytropis and Chesneya were critical resources for all animal groups. High overlap occurred cross-seasonally when smallstock (sheep and goats) in summer used the spring and autumn ranges of naur. Relatively high total ungulate biomass (3028 kg km−2) and low recruitment of naur (56 young per 100 adult females in autumn) suggested interspecific competition. The spatio-temporal heterogeneity in composition and phenology of food plants across the steep gradient of altitude, together with rotational grazing, appears to indirectly facilitate coexistence of naur and smallstock. However, owing to high cross-seasonal (inter-seasonal) overlaps, competition is likely to occur between these two groups at high stocking densities. Within seasons, naur overlapped more with free-ranging yak than with smallstock. As their habitat use and diets were most similar in winter, when both fed extensively on the same species of shrubs, naur was most likely to compete with yak during that season.

Keywords

bharalblue sheepdietsfood habitsmountain ungulatesNepalpastoralismPseudois nayaurrangeland managementresource partitioning
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 125 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2008

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