science

Wildlife of Nepal

Wildlife of Nepal is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wildlife of Nepal rather than just read about it. In short: Wildlife diversity is a notable feature of Nepal. Because of the variance in climate, from tropical to arctic, Nepal has a large variety of plants and animals.

Key takeaways

Wildlife of Nepal belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wildlife of Nepal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wildlife of Nepal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wildlife diversity is a notable feature of Nepal. Because of the variance in climate, from tropical to arctic, Nepal has a large variety of plants and animals. Wildlife tourism is a major source of tourism in the country. There are some animal species which are unique to Nepal, such as the spiny babbler. Nepal is also host to many rhododendron species. Nepal has numerous national parks and reserves to protect its diverse fauna. Nepal is a biodiversity hot spot with ecoregions broadly comprising the mountainous ecoregion, the savanna and grasslands ecoregion of the Terai , and the Rara Lake ecoregion.

Legal protection With the 1973 passing of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2029 BS, Nepal has established numerous national parks and reserves in order to protect its fauna. There are four different classes of protection, ranging from national parks and nature reserves to wildlife and hunting reserves. By 1992 Nepal had established seven national parks, protecting in total over 893,200 hectares (3,449 mi2) of land. Under these classes as of 2002 there were 23 protected areas: nine national parks, three wildlife reserves, three conservation areas, one hunting reserve, three additional Ramsar sites, and four additional World Heritage Sites. The most noted world heritage sites are Sagarmatha National Park and Chitwan National Park. In addition, the World Heritage Site in the Kathmandu Valley covers zones of significant biodiversity.

Animals

Mammals There are 208 mammal species reported including 28 species outside the limits of the protected areas but excluding four known extinct species. The smooth-coated otter and Eurasian otter are present in the country, and there are historical records of the Asian small-clawed otter. Among the mammal species in Nepal are the Bengal fox, Bengal tiger, clouded leopard, corsac fox, Indian rhinoceros, Asiatic elephant, marbled cat, Indian pangolin, Chinese pangolin, red panda, snow leopard, Tibetan fox and Tibetan wolf. The wild yak, thought to be regionally extinct in the 1970s, was rediscovered in 2014.

Reptiles There are several types of reptile native to the country, ranging from pit vipers to monitor lizards. Some of the more prominent examples include the Bengal monitor, Gloydius himalayanus (a pit viper), the elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata), Trimeresurus septentrionalis, and the yellow monitor. Although the above are found elsewhere in southeast Asia, there are quite a few reptile species unique to the country, including Sitana fusca and Cyrtodactylus nepalensis. Sitana sivalensis, Japalura tricarinata, the Annapurna ground skink (Scincella capitanea), the lidless skink (Ablepharus nepalensis), geckos (Cyrtodactylus martinstolli), Shah's bamboo pit viper (Trimeresurus karanshahi) and the Tibetan pit viper (Gloydius strauchi) are also reptiles found in Nepal.

In 2019, the first successful gharial reproduction since 1982 was confirmed.

Avifauna

There are approximately 27 Important Bird Areas in the country and over 900 bird species (as of 2012) in Nepal of which 30 are globally threatened, 1 is endemic and 1 is introduced. The danphe, the national bird, is a type of pheasant. In addition, there are eight species of stork, five other species of pheasant, six minivets, seventeen cuckoos, thirty flycatchers, and sixty species of warblers. The spiny babbler is the only species endemic to Nepal.

Aquatic fauna The aquatic faunal species reported from the water bodies in Nepal are: Pharping catfish (Myersglanis blythii), Psilorhynchus nepalensis, goonch catfish (Bagarius yarrelli), Nepalese minnow (Psilorhynchus pseudecheneis), Nepalese snowtrout (Schizothorax macrophthalmus), Turcinoemacheilus himalaya, erethistid catfishes (Erethistoides ascita and Erethistoides cavatura), bagrid catfish (Batasio macronotus) and sisorid catfishes (such as Pseudecheneis eddsi, Pseudecheneis crassicauda and Pseudecheneis serracula).

Invertebrates Some of the important insect species reported are: ground beetles (Cychropsis nepalensis), Nebria molendai, dung beetles (Caccobius scheuerni), longhorned beetles (Hesperoclytus katarinae), moths (Heterolocha mariailgeae), katydids (Isopsera caligula), mole crickets (Gryllotalpa pygmaea), grasshoppers (Nepalocaryanda latifrons), bees (Andrena kathmanduensis), ant-mimicking thrips (Franklinothrips strasseni) and damselflies (Calicnemia nipalica). Other invertebrates reported are tarantulas (Haplocosmia nepalensis), goblin spiders (Brignolia ankhu), jumping spiders (Euophrys omnisuperstes), scorpions (Heterometrus nepalensis), centipedes (Cryptops nepalensis), land snails (Darwininitium shiwalikianum and Laevozebrinus nepalensis), and freshwater snails (Tricula mahadevensis).

Flora

Research undertaken in the late 1970s and early 1980s documented 5,067 species of which 5041 were angiosperms and the remaining 26 species were gymnosperms. The Terai area has hardwood, bamboo, palm, and sal trees. Notable plants include the garden angelica, Luculia gratissima, Meconopsis villosa, and Persicaria affinis. However, according to ICOMOS checklist (as of 2006), in the protected sites, there are 2,532 species of vascular plants under 1,034 genera and 199 families. The variation in figures is attributed to inadequate floral coverage filed studies. There are 400 species of vascular plants which are endemic to Nepal. Of these, two in particular are orchids Pleione coronaria and Oreorchis porphyranthes.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wildlife of Nepal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wildlife of Nepal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wildlife of Nepal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wildlife of Nepal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wildlife of Nepal

In research: Wildlife of Nepal appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wildlife of Nepal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wildlife of Nepal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biota of Nepal, Wildlife by country, Wildlife of Nepal, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wildlife of Nepal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wildlife of Nepal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wildlife of Nepal means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wildlife of Nepal out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wildlife of Nepal in simple terms?

Wildlife diversity is a notable feature of Nepal. Because of the variance in climate, from tropical to arctic, Nepal has a large variety of plants and animals.

Why does Wildlife of Nepal matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wildlife of Nepal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wildlife of Nepal.