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Ecology of the lesser known mammals of chimmony wildlife sanctuary
Studying the lesser known mammals such as the small carnivores, rodents, insectivores and bats is always a challenging one for the wildlife researchers because these mammals are nocturnal or crepuscular, small bodied and inhabit inaccessible areas. This makes these groups of mammals least studied an...
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| Format: | Ph.D Thesis |
| Language: | Undetermined |
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Vellanikkara
Department of Wildlife Sciences,College of Forestry
2010
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| 245 | |a Ecology of the lesser known mammals of chimmony wildlife sanctuary | ||
| 260 | |a Vellanikkara |b Department of Wildlife Sciences,College of Forestry |c 2010 | ||
| 502 | |b MSc. | ||
| 520 | 3 | |a Studying the lesser known mammals such as the small carnivores, rodents, insectivores and bats is always a challenging one for the wildlife researchers because these mammals are nocturnal or crepuscular, small bodied and inhabit inaccessible areas. This makes these groups of mammals least studied and hence less information is available regarding their ecology, behaviour and habits. In this study, an attempt was made to understand the ecology of the lesser known mammals of Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary. The techniques employed include line transect survey for direct and indirect evidences, camera trapping, Sherman trapping for rodents and insectivores, and mistnet for bats. A total of 240 kilometres transect walk, 270 camera-trap nights, 5000 Sherman trap-nights and 80 hours of mistnet were carried out in the sanctuary. A total of 22 species belonging to 10 families of lesser known mammals studied were recorded from the sanctuary. These include six species of small carnivores, eight species of rodents and eight species of bats. Small carnivores include two civets, two mongooses, one otter and one small cat. Rodents recorded include four species of squirrels, three species of rats and the Porcupine. Similarly, the bats studied include three species of fruit bats and five species of insectivorous bats. Among the small carnivores civets were abundant followed by mongoose. Ratufa indica and Rattus rattus wroughtoni were the abundant species of squirrels and rats respectively among the rodents. Rhinolophus rouxii was the abundant species of bats in the sanctuary. Herpestes vitticollis, Petaurista philippensis, Cremnomys blanfordi and Hipposideros ater were observed only in the moist deciduous forests whereas Millardia meltada, Cynopterus sphinx, Hipposideros speoris, Cynopterus brachyotis and Rhinolophus beddomei were observed only in the semi-evergreen forests. All other species recorded were habitat generalists observed in both the moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests. Small mammals with smaller area requirements would have been the last one to be affected due to the changes in the landscape and habitat degradation. Smaller mammals are susceptible to the alterations in the habitat and thus could be a good indicator of the habitat health. Conservation strategies may be improved if information on species ecology is taken into account. | |
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