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Range extension of the Melogale personata I. Georoy Saint-
Hilaire, 1831 (Mustelidae) in Nepal
Sijar Bhatta1,2, Dipak Khadka1,3,4*, Gobinda Prasad Pokharel1, Komal Raj Kae5,
Man Kumar Dhamala6, Badri Bahadur Khawas7, Ramesh Prasad Sapkota6, Jerrold L. Belant8
1 GoldenGate International College, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal • SB: sijar.bhatta1@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0 003-
3168-1171 • DK: d.khadka@goldengate.edu.np https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0472-3535 • GPP: govindapokhrel90@gmail.com
2 Amrit Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
3 Guangdong Key Laboratory for Innovative Development and Utilization of Forest Plant Germplasm, College of Forestry and Landscape
Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
4 Environment Protection and Study Center (ENPROSC), Kathmandu, Nepal
5 Division Forest Oce, Syanga, Nepal • KRK: kaekomal@gmail.com
6 Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal • MKD: mkdhamala@cdes.edu.np • RPS: rsapkota@
cdes.edu.np
7 Waling Municipality, Syajnga District, Nepal • BBK: khawasbdr201@gmail.com
8 Global Wildlife Conservation Center, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York, USA
• JLB: jbelant@esf.edu
* Corresponding author
Abstract
Melogale personata I. Georoy Saint-Hilaire, 1831, Large-toothed Ferret Badger (Mustelidae), is distributed from
Nepal to Vietnam with very few records. It historically is known by only one recent sighting record from an unspeci-
ed area of Nepal. The IUCN species distribution map shows this species in the Okhaldhunga District. We conrm the
presence of M. personata in Nepal based on a sighting of a juvenile individual. This is the rst record of this species
from Syangja District, Nepal. The geographical range of this species is extended farther west in Nepal.
Keywords
Distribution, rst record, mammalian carnivore
Academic editor: Krizler Tanalgo | Received 20 May 2021 | Accepted 28 September 2021 | Published 2 November 2021
Citation: Bhatta S, Khadka D, Pokharel GP, Kae KR, Dhamala MK, Khawas BB, Sapkota RP, Belant JL (2021) Range extension of the Melogale
personata I. Georoy Saint-Hilaire, 1831 (Mustelidae) in Nepal. Check List 17 (6): 1451–1454. https://doi.org/10.15560/17.6.1451
Introduction
Melogale personata I. Georoy Saint-Hilaire, 1831
(Large-toothed Ferret-Badger or Burmese Ferret Badger)
is a carnivore from the family Mustelidae. It has been
recorded in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, and Malaysia (O’Donel
1917; Hinton and Fry 1923; Osgood 1932; Pocock 1941;
Hussain 1999; Wozencraft 2005; Islam et al. 2008).
According to the IUCN Red List, M. personata is
Check List 17 (6): 1451–1454
https://doi.org/10.15560/17.6.1451
6
17
© The authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
1452 Check List 17 (6)
classied as Least Concern in 1996, Data Decient in
2008, and again Least Concern in 2015. The popula-
tion size and trend is unknown (Duckworth et al. 2016).
Recent records from Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India
(Islam et al. 2008; Schank et al. 2009; Kakati et al. 2014)
are from elevations below 550 m (Peenen et al. 1971) to
1520 m a.m.s.l. (Pocock 1941).
Hinton and Fry (1923) reported M. nepalensis (Ho dg-
son, 1836) from Nepal, but this taxon is now considered
a valid subspecies of M. personata in South Asia (Srini-
vasulu and Srinivasulu 2012; Srinivasulu 2018). Thapa
(2014) opined that M. personata may be extirpated from
Nepal. However, Duckworth et al. (2016) conrmed the
presence of this species based on photographic evidence,
which lacks a details of location, elevation, and habitat.
Here, we report the rst conrmed observation of M.
personata in Syangja District of Nepal.
Methods
A young Melogale personata was recorded on 9 June
2020 in Waling Municipality-11, Tallo Pekhu Orale,
Sy angja District, Nepal (Fig. 1). A photograph of this
individual was taken, along with a morphological ex-
amination including body weight, and tail and body
length. The individual was observed for six hours. We
veried this record through iNaturalist (2021) and online
searches using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and the
IUCN database. Identication of the species was veried
through consultation with an expert, Prof. Karan Baha-
dur Shah. We used ArcGIS v. 10.4.1, and the IUCN data-
base to map our new record.
Results
Melogale personata I. Georoy Saint-Hilaire, 1831
Figure 2
New record. N EPA L – Ga nda ki Pr ovince • Syangja Dis-
trict, Waling Municipality-11, near Sanu Pekhu Com-
munity Forest and Tallo Pekhu Orale village; 83°45′
42.33″E, 027°59′48.76″N; 975 m a.m.s.l.; 9.VI.2020;
Badri Khawas; collected near a Ficus semicordata Buch.-
Ham. ex Sm. tree with grasses and shr ubs, adjacent to a
corn eld and forested area dominated by Schima wal-
lichii (DC.) Korth. and Castanopsis indica (J. Roxb. ex
Lindl.) A. DC.
Identication. The estimated weight of this juvenile
was 1 kg and the total length was 45 cm (body length
= 30 cm; tail length = 15 cm). Sex was not determined.
The pelage was dominated by black, with a white dorsal
stripe on body and white spots on the face, ear, and foot.
We conrmed this species through the pattern of dorsal
pelage and facial markings (Islam et al. 2008; Kakati et
al. 2014; Duckworth et al. 2016).
Figure 1. Location of Melogale personata in Waling, Syangja District, Nepal (black star), and current global distribution of the species:
yellow = previous range; orange = new range (modied from Duckworth et al. 2016).
Bhatta et al. 2021 | Melogale personata in Nepal 1453
Discussion
This is the rst known record of Melogale personata in
Sayngja District, and it represents a range extension of
296 km west of the species’ current known distribution
as given by Duckworth et al. (2016). The recorded habitat
of grass and bushes was similar to the habitat described
by Peenen et al. (1971).
The weight and length of our recorded individual
were less than an animal from Bangladesh, where the
weight was about 2 kg and the total length was 51 cm
(body length = 33 cm; tail length = 18 cm) (Islam et al.
2008), and animals from India, which were reported to
be 1.7 kg and 55–63 cm in total length (Pocock 1941).
There is currently no action plan for M. personata
in Nepal, where it is considered Data Decient (Amin
et al. 2018). Globally it is Least Concern (Duckworth et
al. 2016). India has maintained M. personata on Sched-
ule II (I) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (Kakati
et al. 2014); however, due to a lack of information on the
ecology and distribution of this species, it has been clas-
sied as Data Decient in India (Sharma et al 2014). Our
new data represents a geographic range extension of M.
personata to Nepal, furthers our understanding of this
species’ distribution, and adds to the mammalian diver-
sity of Nepal.
As there are no previous records of M. personata
from the Syanjga District, our new record supports a
substantial range extension of this species in Nepal. We
recommend additional eld surveys to better understand
the distribution of this species and further rene its con-
servation status in Nepal.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Syanjga District Forest Oce, Annapurna
Conservation Area Project, Rishi Baral, Jhalnath Pou-
del, Karan Bahadur Shah, and Devi Kala Khawas for
their support with this observation. We also thank sub-
ject editor Krizler Tanalgo and reviewers for their com-
ments which improved the manuscript.
Authors’ Contributions
Conceptualization: SB, DK, GP, MKD, KRK, RPS,
JLB. Data curation: SB, DK, GP, MKD, JLB. Formal
analysis: SB, DK, JLB. Visualization: BBK, KRK. Writ-
ing original draft: SB, DK. Writing review and editing:
JLB, DK, SB, RPS.
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