Mainland leopard cat (<i>Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis</i>) population density in an unprotected mixed landscape of the Himalayan Foothills in Nepal

Abstract The Mainland leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis ) has a wide distribution, but little is known about its ecology in Nepal. We deployed 36 pairs of cameras for three weeks in 2020 in a non-protected area of the Nepalese Himalayan foothills. We obtained 18 leopard cat detections, however simultaneous detections on both flanks never occurred. We used a multi-session spatially-explicit capture-recapture (SECR) model and a Spatial Partial Identity Model (SPIM) to estimate its population density, which was 10.74 (CI = 4.32–26.7) and 12.83 (CCI = 3.09–25.99) individuals per 100 km 2 , suggesting a healthy population for this area.