Around 62 percent of the habitat of the Nilgiri marten ( Martes gwatkinsii), a rare species of marten endemic to the Western Ghats, lies outside protected areas, and as a consequence, could be lost to development and agriculture, a recent study indicates. Martens are small carnivores belonging to the weasel and badger families.
With less than 1,000 estimated individuals believed to exist in the wild, this fragmentation of the Nilgiri marten’s habitat could weaken the existing population, caution researchers who conducted the study. The results of the study were published in a paper titled, ‘Distribution and conservation status of the endemic Nilgiri marten,’ in the journal Mammalia, earlier this year.
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