Factors affecting the occupancy of Chinese pangolins (<i>Manis pentadactyla</i>) suggest a highly specialized ecological niche
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The Chinese pangolin is a critically endangered and biologically unique species, yet information on its status, distribution, and habitat preferences is still scarce in Nepal, which limits effective conservation action. This study identified the current burrow density status, distribution pattern, and important habitat parameters associated with Chinese pangolin distribution in Nepal through opportunistic field surveys. Fifty‐four belt transects were examined for the presence of pangolin burrows. For each active burrow (burrow with freshly dug soil, footprints, and scat near the entrance) and old burrow (burrow with compacted soil, presence of dead leaves, and spider web in the entrance), we recorded the geographic coordinates and assessed data on 11 habitat parameters that included elevation, aspect, slope, canopy cover, ground cover, presence or absence of ant and termite colonies, habitat type, soil type, and distances to the nearest water source, road, and settlement. A total of 141 active burrows and 430 old burrows were recorded with an overall clumped distribution . Active burrow density was estimated to be 1.04 burrows/ha. Of the 11 habitat parameters predicted to influence the probability of encountering pangolin burrows, all parameters were significant except elevation. More than 92% of the burrows were found at elevations between 450 and 750 m and facing either the SE or NW aspect. Similarly, about 90% of the burrows were distributed in areas having slopes between 0% and 30% with moderate to high canopy and ground cover, and located close to water sources, roads, and settlements. Additionally, they strongly preferred forest habitats (with Shorea robusta , Castanopsis indica , Schima wallichii , Clerodendron infortunatum , and Nephrolepis auriculata as the dominant vegetation), areas with red soil, and areas located near ant and termite colonies. Although the study area currently provides suitable habitat for Chinese pangolins, it is slowly being degraded due to increasing rates of forest degradation. Conservation efforts should be increased in order to protect this critically endangered species and their preferred habitats. Finally, our findings reveal the preferred habitat characteristics of Chinese pangolins, which could be instrumental for policy makers and forest managers in making conservation plans for Chinese pangolins.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.010 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; both teacher heads agree on what is shown here.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".