Forest landscapes in the midhills of western Nepal are not adequately conserved
within a protected area network. The species and ecosystems in these humandominated
landscapes are highly endangered. Understanding the effects of
human activities on wildlife is therefore important for devising an appropriate
conservation strategy in this region. Here, we show, using data on spatial structure
of three endangered mountain ungulates, that presence of these species is
determined by the level of human disturbance and habitat requirements. We show
that species preferring flat areas covered by dense forest are exposed to more
intensive human disturbances, and even an adaptation to rugged areas does not
imply less human disturbance. Abundance of all species studied declined with the
number of villages in the vicinity and increased with distance to nearest village.
Therefore, increasing human population may contribute to a decrease of wildlife
population in the region. To prevent this, community forestry program enabling
local people to protect forest near villages and land-use strategy aimed at reducing
further encroachment of forest in higher altitudes should be immediately
launched in the region.