Habitat Overlap of Tiger and Leopard in Banke-Bardia Complex

Tiger (Panthera tigris) and leopard (Panthera pardus) are two congener species and wherever they live together are found to compete for space and habitat. The study on habitat suitability and overlap between tigers and leopards in the Banke-Bardia Complex, Nepal, aims to assess the ecological preferences and spatial distribution patterns of these big cat species within the given landscape. For the study the Banke-Bardia Complex was considered as it is one of the priority tiger conservation units. We have gathered the GPS location of tigers and leopards from the camera trap survey. Maximum Entropy (Maxent) is software used to model the suitable habitat of species by using geo-referenced occurrence data and environmental variables. We used area under the receiver-operator curve (AUC) as the threshold-independent method. We found a fair AUC for the model of leopard (0.674+/-0.043) and tiger (0.690+/- 0.012) habitat suitability model. We found 854.15 km² and 867.21 km² of suitable habitat for common leopard and tiger respectively throughout the study area. We identified 388.16 km² of overlapping habitat between the species, which constituted 45.60% of the habitat of leopard and 44.75% of the habitat of tiger. Most of the overlapping habitat was located in the southern part of Banke National Park and western parts of Bardia National Park. The findings from this study highlight the need for inclusive conservation strategies extending beyond core protected areas. Engaging local communities in conservation efforts and promoting sustainable land-use practices can mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and support broader ecological integrity.