Chapter 27: Modelling pygmy hog habitat297
and that have forecasted the impacts of climate change by insert-
ing future climatic variables from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) projections. This could be further
refined by considering land-use change in addition to the effects
of climatic variables with respect to pygmy hog conservation
(Wisz et al. 2008).
A more detailed research into the threats that caused extir-
pation of the species across the former range would be desir-
able, especially in the different countries and areas as the types
and the level of threats vary across areas. For example, in Assam,
where in-depth study on the pygmy hog has been conducted,
the threats to the grasslands and consequently the pygmy hogs
are known. Surveys could be conducted in the areas identified
on the map to assess threat levels and target those areas for habi-
tat restoration and management. Such new studies should also
consider the much larger distribution range of the genus Porcula
until the Late Pleistocene, which included the Indonesian island
of Java, Myanmar and eastern China. What caused the contrac-
tion of this vast range? Were only habitat changes such as the
disappearance of grasslands taking place or did other factors,
such as competition with other species or, possibly, diseases play
a role in the severe reduction of pygmy hogs?Acknowledgements
This study was based on the thesis of one of us (Janani Pradhan),
written for an MSc in Conservation Science at Imperial
College London, which JP conducted for the Durrell Wildlife
Conservation Trust. JP would like to thank Dr Richard Young,
her supervisor, for his guidance and support throughout this
study, and her course directors at Imperial College London, Prof.
E.J. Milner-Gulland, Dr Marcus Rowcliffe, and Dr Colin Clubbe.
JP thanks Dr Annette Huggins for her tremendous help with
GIS, which was such an integral part of the study. JP also thanks
the researchers and volunteers at the Pygmy Hog Conservation
Programme for their help. We thank Dr Goutam Narayan and
Mrs Nandita Hazarika for their help and guidance in Assam, and
Dr Parag Deka for his constant guidance and support.Table 27.1 Protected areas identified as potential survey sites in India
and Nepal.Site No. Protected areas Country State/district
1 Manas National Park* India Assam
2 Orang National Park* India Assam
3 Sonai Rupai National
Park*India Assam4 Nameri National Park India Assam
5 Kaziranga National Park India Assam
6 Dibru Saikhowa
National ParkIndia Assam7 Gorumara National Park India West Bengal
8 Jaldapara Wildlife
SanctuaryIndia West Bengal9 Chitwan National Park Nepal Chitwan,
Nawalparasi Rarsa
and Makwanpur
10 Bardia National Park Nepal Bardiya
11 Shukla Phanta Wildlife
ReserveNepal Kanchanpur12 Parsa Wildlife Reserve Nepal Makwanpur and
Bara
13 Kasi Taapu Wildlife
ReserveNepal Saptan and
Sunsari
14 Banke Buffer Zone Nepal Banke
*Protected areas where the current population of pygmy hogs exists;
made by Janani Pradhan.References
Austin, M. (2007). Species distribution mod-
els and ecological theory: a critical assess-
ment and some possible new approaches.
Ecological Modelling 200(1): 1–19.
Bell, D. & Oliver, W. (1991). The burning
question and other problems relating to tall
grassland management and the conserva-
tion of endangered species in the northern
Indian sub-continent. Tropical Ecology.
Bell, D., Oliver, W. & Ghose, R. (1990).
The hispid hare Caprolagus hispidus. In
Chapman, J. A. & Flux, J. E. C. (eds.),
Rabbits, hares and pikas: status survey and
conservation action plan. Gland: IUCN,
pp. 128–136.
Brown, J. L. (2009). SDMtoolbox: a python-
based GIS toolkit for landscape genetic,
biogeographic and species distribution
model analyses. Methods in Ecology and
Evolution 5(7): 694–700.
Choudhury, A. (1998). Survey of grasslands
in some parts of central and southern
Assam: to assess their bio-diversity and
socio-economic problem. Final report to
WWF-India, New Delhi.
(2002). Distribution and conservation
of the Gaur Bos gaurus in the Indian
Subcontinent. Mammal Review 32(3):
199–226.
Dormann, C. F., McPherson, J. M., Araújo,
M. B., et al. (2007). Methods to account
for spatial autocorrelation in the analysis
of species distributional data: a review.
Ecography 30(5): 609–628.
Elith, J., Phillips, S.J., Hastie, T., et al. (2011).
A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for
ecologists. Diversity and Distributions
17(1): 43–57.
Fleming, R. L. & Traylor, M. A. (1964).
Further notes on Nepal birds. Chicago, IL:
Chicago Natural History Museum.
Funk, S. M., Verma, S. K., Larson, G., et al.
(2007). The pygmy hog is a unique genus:
19th century taxonomists got it right first
time round. Molecular Phylogenetics and
Evolution 45(2): 427–436.Graham, C. H., Ferrier, S., Huettman, F.,
Moritz, C. & Peterson, A. T. (2004). New
developments in museum-based infor-
matics and applications in biodiversity
analysis. Trends in Ecology & Evolution
19(9): 497–503.
Groves, C. P. (1981). Ancestors for the pigs:
taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Sus.
Canberra: Department of Prehistory,
Research School of Pacific Studies,
Australian National University.
Hengeveld, K. (1990). The hierarchical
structure of utterances. In Nuyts, J.
(ed.), Layers and levels of representation
in language theory. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, pp. 1–24.
Hodgson, B. (1847). On a new form of the
hog kind or Suidae. Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal 16: 423–428.
IUCN/SSC Re-introduction Specialist
Group, Union internationale pour la con-
servation de la nature & de ses ressources.
Re-introduction Specialist Group. (1998)..02912:52:16