Original Article
Pangolins are highly threatened mammals with specialized diets of ants and termites, and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) remains poorly documented in many parts of Nepal. This study assessed habitat suitability for the Chinese pangolin and evaluated local community attitudes toward its conservation in the Division Forest Office, Rapti, Makawanpur District, Nepal. We combined reconnaissance surveys, key informant consultation, field-based burrow surveys, and household questionnaires. A total of 351 pangolin burrows (257 old and 93 new burrows) were recorded, and 108 households were surveyed, including 67 respondents from community forests located in suitable habitat and 41 from the least suitable habitat. Occurrence records were spatially thinned to reduce clustering, and 81 retained records were used for ensemble species distribution modeling in the biomod2 package in R. Ten algorithms were evaluated using the True Skill Statistic (TSS) and the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC). Models with TSS > 0.60 and AUC > 0.70 were retained and combined using a TSS-weighted ensemble approach. Random Forest (TSS = 0.800, AUC = 0.969), Generalized Boosting Model (TSS = 0.764, AUC = 0.981), and MAXENT (TSS = 0.757, AUC = 0.880) of the 1,109.3 km2 study area as highly suitable and 150.6 km2 (13.6%) moderately suitable habitat. Population density, vegetation type, distance to settlement, and NDVI were the most influential predictors. Community attitudes were generally positive, but ecological knowledge remained limited. Education and habitat suitability class significantly influenced conservation interest, whereas age and gender did not. The results identify spatially explicit priority areas and highlight the need for targeted outreach in community forests and agricultural buffer areas adjoining suitable pangolin habitat.
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