Farmland increases Indian crested porcupine occupancy in Parsa-Koshi complex, Nepal

Understanding species distributions and factors influencing them are important for conservation, particularly for species occurring in human-dominated areas. The Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica; hereafter porcupine) is distributed southeast and central Asia, however, the porcupine occurrence and habitat use is poorly understood in the area. We deployed cameras at 154 sites for 21 days (3234 trap nights) during December 2022-March 2023 in the human-dominated landscape of Parsa-Koshi Complex (PKC), Madesh Province, Nepal. We used single season single species occupancy model to estimate the relationship of selected covariates with porcupine occupancy. We identified moderate occupancy [0.321 ± 0.079 (SD)] and detection probability [0.315 ± 0.076 (SD)] of porcupines. Although porcupine occurrence was greater in protected area than in outside protected areas, occupancy was positively associated with area of farmland (1.531 ± 1.703) and human presence (0.459 ± 0.531), while it declined with increasing forest canopy cover (-0.86 ± 0.363). The positive effects of agricultural areas and human presence demonstrate the adaptability of porcupines to humans and the potential for continued conflicts. Based on these baseline data, policy makers and wildlife managers can gain insight into the pattern of porcupine occurrence and aid targeted conservation strategies to mitigate increasing human-porcupine conflicts in PKC.