**Conflict of interest**

None**.**

*Wildlife Population Monitoring*

**3. Conclusion**

products which is why musk can sell up to US \$45,000 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) on the international market. However, musk is produced in the gland of males; later it can be extracted from live animals; for that purpose humans kill the musk deer to remove the entire sac having yields only about 25 g (1/40 of a kilogram) composed of the brown waxy substance [38, 39]. Due to increased price of musk deer on the international market, activities of poaching and trade of musk deer have been reported to rapidly increase in the Himalayan region of Nepal [40]. The study from neighboring country also revealed that poaching and trade of the species of musk is also a threat to conservation in Uttarakhand state of India [41]. The population of musk deer rapidly decrease due to many reasons such as poaching for musk pod, habitat overlapping, excess harvesting of forest resources like grass, shrubs, and timber for the human benefits, causing a serious problem for the survival of musk deer in the Himalayan region of Nepal [42, 43]. Grazing of livestock within protected areas might also be a possible risk and grazing of livestock within protected areas might also be a possible risk and threat to musk deer for no availability of enough diet to survive and high chance

of disease transmission from livestock to musk deer and vice versa [40]. However, there was only limited information on musk deer and lack of detailed study on the distribution as well as threat in few protected areas in Nepal. Noninvasive genetic analysis was carried out to know information on the population status, distribution, habitat, seasonal diet, altitude range, survival life span,

Although Nepal is a small country, it has a vast biodiversity found from very low land to the highest mountain in the world. Conservation has come a long way in Nepal; few biodiversity monitoring systems exist and do address for some large species like tiger, greater one-horned rhino, elephant, crocodile, swamp deer, musk deer, snow leopard, red panda, gaur, etc. This review provides information on different population monitoring techniques that have been used in Nepal for endangered wildlife species. In Nepal, wildlife population is basically monitored to assess progress or recovery of endangered or threatened species and research purposes and to know the effect of human management actions. Different methods such as directly observing animals and their behavior in situ, looking for signs like tracks and dung of animals, radar, thermal cameras, capture/mark/release of animals, or attaching or implanting monitoring devices (e.g., collars, leg bands, back packs, or data loggers) and noninvasive methods using fecal, hair, etc. are used for population monitoring. In Nepal population monitoring is being done for few wildlife species only although it has many species. So, population monitoring of other species is also important for making proper conservation plan. In developed countries more advance monitoring technologies are being developed and adapted too. So it needs to collaborate with different biodiversity conservation organizations to work together and share technology and make monitoring more comprehensive. This present review study will provide strong recommendations to community persons, leaders, conservation NGO/INGO, and government bodies to prepare the future action plan strategies about the conservation and monitoring of flagship endangered wild animal species at protected areas in Nepal. It is important to know further detailed information on population status, distribution, habitat, seasonal diet, altitude range, survival life span, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic inferences of each particularly endangered wild animal found at

genetic diversity, and phylogenetic analysis of musk deer in Nepal.

**14**

protected areas in Nepal.
