Jungle Cats and Leopard Cats: Distribution, Occupancy Modeling, and Activity Patterns in Bardia National Park, Nepal

Small cats play a vital role in maintaining ecological balances. Inadequate knowledge based on their habitat preference and interspecific competition has hindered the effective conservation initiatives. We studied occupancy and diel activity patterns of two sympatric small cats, i.e., jungle cat (Felis chaus) and leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), in and around Bardia National Park (BNP) using camera trap data. BNP was divided into 344 camera trap grids of 2 × 2 km, and a survey was conducted with a trapping effort of 6307 days. For the occupancy modeling, we applied a single-species single-season occupancy model. We analyzed 11 covariates that have the potential to influence the occupancy of jungle cats and leopard cats. The probability of occupancy of the jungle cat was 0.17 (SE: 0.0026, CI: 0.1726, 0.18271). The tiger's index positively influenced the jungle cat's occupancy, while it showed a strong negative association with the terrain ruggedness index and distance to road. Similarly, the probability of occupancy for leopard cat was found to be 0.19 (SE: 0.0022, CI: 0.1829, 0.1916). The leopard cat occupancy was strongly positively correlated with riverine forest habitat type. We used non-parametric kernel-density functions on camera trap data to determine diel activity patterns. Sympatric jungle cat and leopard cat showed high temporal overlap with a coefficient (Δ = 0.9), being nocturnal. The distribution of jungle cats and leopard cats in BNP appears to be facilitated by spatial segregation. The study serves as a baseline for further research and conservation initiatives for these two sympatric cats in western Nepal.