Grizzled squirrel safe at Chinnar: Forest dept

The Hindu, October 25 2018
Thiruvananthapuram:

The Kerala Forest Department has clarified that 68 Grizzled Giant Squirrel individuals were directly sighted at the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary during a 2017 survey. The squirrel population was estimated to be 104 individuals in the potential riparian habitat.
No hunting incidents
Referring to a report on the dwindling population of the Grizzled Giant Squirrel species, which appeared in these columns, P.M. Prabhu, Assistant Wildlife Warden, said no hunting incidents of the species had been reported since the sanctuary was established.
He said the sanctuary had a “very healthy and stable population of another flagship species, the Indian Star Tortoise, indicating that habitat disturbance was very negligible”.
Help of tribes
The study was conducted in 50 km of potential habitat of the “sanctuary (riparian forest) which was selected based on the indigenous knowledge of the tribal people inhabiting the sanctuary”, he said.
For the survey, 21 line transects were taken and surveyed repeatedly by 31 participants for six days. “This recent study report is more relevant and authentic,” Mr.Prabu said.

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Dwindling Grizzled Giant Squirrel species

K.S. Sudhi, Kochi
The Hindu, October 03, 2018  

Grizzled Giant Squirrel is living on the edge in the Chinnar Wild Life Sanctuary, one of its habitats in Western Ghats.
Researchers could count only 24 squirrels (Ratufa macroura) there, giving rise to fears that its population might have depleted by 85% in the sanctuary over a decade.
A recent study pointed out that the “current population estimation is about 78% to 85% lesser than the previous population estimation carried out in 1993 and 2007 respectively, which is quite alarming.” It was after gap of a decade that the status of the species was estimated.
The findings of the study, carried out by Kiran Thomas and P. O. Nameer of Kerala Agricultural University, was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa recently.
The animal, which got its common name from the white flecks of hair over its greyish body, is seen in pairs or as a family party of three individuals only during the breeding season.
The species is endemic to the southern States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The only known population of the squirrel in Kerala is in the sanctuary. The population of the species in the country is estimated to be less than 500 mature individuals.
Earlier studies had indicated that the squirrel population was declining by over 30% during the last quarter century, thanks to the hunters and habitat loss.
The current population density of the species is estimated to be 15.26 squirrels per sq km against the density of 18 to 23 squirrels/sq km of 1993 and 64 squirrels/sq km of 2007, the study noted.
The Chinnar population is troubled by the increased predator pressure and the extremely low regeneration of its preferred food plant species due to heavy grazing by cattle.
During the study, the researchers chanced upon several suspected hybrid squirrels.

 

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Climate change threatens the Nilgiri tahr

Aathira Perinchery Kochi

The Hindu,  July 11, 2018  

The antics of the sure-footed Nilgiri tahr are a treat to watch, but these endangered wild mountain goats – found only in high altitudes in India’s Western Ghats — could be losing their footing with increasing climate change. Even under moderate scenarios of future climate change, tahrs could lose approximately 60% of their habitats from the 2030s on, predict scientists in their study in Ecological Engineering, an international journal that emphasises the need for ecological restoration.
Scientists tried to predict how climate change can affect tahr habitat in the Ghats by mapping tahr distribution (using existing information and field surveys) and then using climatic factors of these locations to see where tahrs would be able to survive, given current and future climate change scenarios.
They found that tahr strongholds such as Chinnar, Eravikulam and Parambikulam in Kerala will still be stable habitats under different climate change scenarios.
However, other regions, including parts of Tamil Nadu’s Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and the wildlife sanctuaries of Peppara, Neyyar, Schenduruny and Srivilliputhur, could experience severe habitat loss in future; in total, approx. 60% of tahr habitat could be lost across the Ghats from 2030s onwards. There are only around 2,500 tahrs left in the wild and their population — “small and isolated, making them vulnerable to local extinction” — shows a “decreasing” trend, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Local threat

According to senior author Jayahari K. M. of Delhi-based World Resource Institute India, the study has to be seen in the context of this identified vulnerability; the impacts of climate change may further increase the chances of local extinction, he said. The study’s findings demand a comprehensive species management plan, said co-authors Sony R.K. and Sandeep Sen of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.
Scientists, including P. S. Easa, member of the National Board for Wildlife (who also co-authored the latest report on Kerala’s tahr populations), had drafted a tahr recovery plan in 2010. According to the report, only the Eravikulam and Mukurthi National Parks stress on tahr-centered conservation activities in their management plans. Though the recovery plan identified “conservation units” and made site-specific recommendations, how much of it has been implemented is unclear, said Dr. Easa.
“It is important that we focus our efforts on these conservation units and monitor isolated populations,” he said.

 

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Wayanad sanctuary plays host to Chousingha

E.M. Manoj KALPETTA
The Hindu  July 11, 2018  

Apart from providing refuge to various species of vultures and other wildlife, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary has also proved to be a safe haven for the four-horned antelope or Chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis).
The images of the antelope (Ula man in local parlance) were captured by camera traps installed in the Ottipara section of the forest under the sanctuary recently.
This is the first time the animal was photographed in the forest area of the State, though its sighting was reported in the sanctuary a few years ago, N.T. Sajan, warden, told The Hindu.
“We have been closely monitoring the Varalam and Kavanahalla forest areas in the Sulthan Bathery forest range of the sanctuary, adjoining the Rampur reserved forest in Karnataka, for confirming the presence of the animal for the past 10 months,” Mr. Sajan said adding that they had set up 15 camera traps in these areas for the purpose. The photographs of a female and a male sub-adult were captured.
“When the male antelope attains maturity it will have four horns and this speciality distinguished the animal from other bovines,” O. Vishnu, conservation biologist of the sanctuary, said. The animal is included in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act and also in the vulnerable category of the IUCN .
“The antelope is diurnal (active mainly during the day) and usually found in dry deciduous forests. Though solitary in nature, it may form loose groups of three to five, with one or more adults, sometimes accompanied by juveniles,” Mr. Vishnu said.
The four-horned antelope was threatened by the loss of its natural habitat, he said. Moreover, the unusual four-horned skull and the horns had been a popular target for trophy hunters, he added. There are nearly 10,000 of them in the country according to the latest census.
“We are planning a comprehensive project for conservation of the species,” Mr. Sajan said.

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