Camera traps for estimating tiger and leopard populations in the high mountains of Bhutan

Wang and Macdonald applied camera-trap capture-recapture to tigers and leopards in the high-altitude mountains of Bhutan, documenting the surprising presence of tigers at unusually high elevations and quantifying the coexistence of the two large cats. They estimated abundance for both species from individually identified animals and examined how the felids partitioned space and elevation. The study expanded the known altitudinal range of tigers and demonstrated the feasibility of camera surveys in steep Himalayan terrain. It contributed valuable density and distribution data for a poorly studied region and informed transboundary conservation in the eastern Himalayas. The paper is cited in tiger and leopard research and as an example of camera trapping revealing unexpected ecological patterns in mountain landscapes.