Wildlife habitat conservation plan of leopard cats, and raccoon dogs in Gang-seo ecological Park, Seoul

Background/Question/Methods

In spite of poor habitat condition, Leopard cat (prionailurus bengalensis) and Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) are found to inhabit in urban areas of Korea, but little is known about how they have adapted to urbanization. With increasing urban sprawl in Korea, it is important to understand how and why animals are using urban landscapes. The objectives of this paper were to investigate the home range of Leopard cat and Raccoon dog in our test site, Gang-seo Ecological Park of Seoul, Korea, and to provide data for setting up habitat conservation plan. The site is a riparian open space surrounded by the Han River, built-up areas, and a limited access highway. The only remaining corridor connecting to adjacent landscape will be cut off in the near future by a canal project. The home range of the Leopard cat and Raccoon dog were determined by applying MCP rule with telemetry data observed every hour for 72 hours in every month.

Results/Conclusions

Radio-tracking has showed that the size of home range of Female leopard cat; 1.45㎢(100% MCP), Female raccoon dog; 0.45㎢ (100% MCP) and Male raccoon dog; 1.29㎢(100% MCP). One Male leopard cat and one Male raccoon dog were killed by wildlife vehicle collision(WVC). Their home ranges encompassed a small portion of built-up area and bared soil patches and a larger proportion of forest and grassland than were available in the study area. Daytime resting cover prefer forest, shrub and grassland. It was found that both species were reluctant in using the exotic plant community. Rates of movement peaked at 2200 and 0400 hr showing that both species were nocturnal. The intensity of movements(IM) of leopard cat and raccoon dog was 1.5±0.7(km/㎢), 5.4±1.2(km/㎢) respectively. It shows that although their home range was small, but they use habitat area more intensively than the individuals living in rural area. For conservation of leopard cat and raccoon dog population in Gang-seo Ecological Park, first, it would be essential to preserve willow forest and grassland, while controlling exotic plant community. second, safe wildlife crossings connecting habitat patches and surrounding landscape should be provided by installing fence and ledges on the bottom of culverts. The construction of a bridge type wildlife crossing over the proposed canal is proposed as a mitigation measure.