Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2016 | 8(12): 9449–9453

 

 

 

 

Migratory Pallas’s Gull Larus ichthyaetus (Pallas, 1773): a new record from Sikkim, the eastern Himalaya, India

Santosh Sharma 1 & Dinesh Bhatt 2

 

 

1,2 Avian Biodiversity and Bioacoustics Laboratory, Department of Zoology & Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri University, Haridwar, Uttarakhand 249404, India

1 santosh_gbpihed@rediffmail.com (corresponding author), 2 dineshharidwar@gmail.com

 

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2123.8.12.9449-9453 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F2A92125-A892-4410-8818-9D3B2A24A528

 

Editor: Taej Mundkur, Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Date of publication: 26 October 2016 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # 2123 | Received 24 August 2016 | Final received 05 October 2016 | Finally accepted 09 October 2016

 

Citation: Sharma, S. & D. Bhatt (2016). Migratory Pallas’s Gull Larus ichthyaetus (Pallas, 1773): a new record from Sikkim, the eastern Himalaya, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(12): 9449-9453; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2123.8.12.9449-9453

 

Copyright: © Sharma & Bhatt 2016. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: University Grants Commission, New Delhi [F.7-70/2007 (BSR)].

 

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The first author Santosh Sharma acknowledges the UGC, New Delhi for providing a Basic Scientific Research fellowship. Thanks to Satyadeep Chettri for providing the first photograph of Pallas’s Gull in the state. The authors are also grateful to U. Lachungpa for confirming the previous sighting of the species in the state

 

 

 

Abstract: The present study documents the first sightings of the migratory Pallas’s Gull at two different locations (Cholamu Lake and Singtam Valley) in the eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim in India. We recommend that long term surveys are required to determine and establish the distribution and status of the species in the state.

 

Keywords: Bird migration, Central Asian Flyway, Cholamu Lake, East Asian - Australasian Flyway, Pallas’s Gull, Sikkim, Singtam Valley.

 

 

 

Migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by a number of birds in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather (Berthold et al. 2001). In recent decades, understanding the pattern and timing of migration has become of great importance to the conservation of migratory bird species (Boere & Stroud 2006; Li & Mundkur 2007). The Indian subcontinent lies in the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) and is a host to migratory waterbird species from the Palaearctic region (Alfred & Nandi 2000). Out of 1,180 species of birds found in the Indian subcontinent, 459 species are winter visitors (BirdLife International 2016). There are also reports that a lot of migration occurs across many areas along the length of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. Ducks and geese constitute about 85% of the migrant populations to the Indian subcontinent (Kumar et al. 2003, 2005). With regard to India, only 2.8% work has been conducted on bird migration (Narwade et al. 2012). Consequently, there is a dearth of in-depth information of migratory patterns of waterbirds in the Indian subcontinent.

As far as the eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, India is concerned; there have been sightings on some migratory birds, e.g., Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea, Osprey Pandion haliaetus, Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis, Little Grebe Podiceps ruficollis, Common Merganser Mergus merganser, Coot Fulica atra, Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus, Northern Pintail Anas, acuta, Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Baer’s Pochard Aythya baeri, and Tufted Duck Aythya ferina (Ganguli-Lachungpa 1990a,b, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2003; Chettri et al. 2005). The present study documents the first sightings of Pallas’s Gull (Larus ichthyaetus Pallas, 1773) for the state.

 

 

Results and Discussion

On 06 September 2013 the first sighting (unpublished) of a non-breeding individual was made by Satyadeep Chettri at Cholamu Lake (28.0110N & 88.7560E; elevation 5,330m), North District of Sikkim (Fig. 1). It was also the first photographic record of the species from Sikkim (Image 1).

On 21 March 2014, we started a bird survey from Singtam towards the Sirwani, on the road parallel to Teesta (Image 2). On the way at a distance of about 100m, we sighted a solitary bird on the river bed of Teesta in the Singtam Valley between Singtam Town, East Sikkim, (27013.908’N & 88029.549’E, elevation 355m) and Sirwani Village (27014.506’N & 88028.989’E; elevation 382m, about 2km from Singtam) at 07:42hr (Image 3) and 07:50hr (Image 4). This is the second photographic record of Pallas’s Gull in Sikkim (Images 3 and 4).

There is no published information of this species in the Sikkim Himalaya (Ganguli-Lachungpa 1990a,b, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2003; Acharya & Vijayan 2011; Leepage 2014). Hence, our observations constitute a new record for the Sikkim State.

A review of the literature reveals that the species breeds in a few very small, scattered localities from the Black Sea (Ukraine), east to Lake Balkhash (Kazakhstan) and northwestern Mongolia (Del Hoyo et al. 1996). It’s breeding range in western China is largely limited to lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau (Liao et al. 1984; Jian et al. 1991; Wang 1991). Qinghai Lake (3,260m), on the northern part of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau is home to approximately 15,000 gulls (Liao et al. 1984; Zhang et al. 2008). The non-breeding (northern wintering) range covers the coastal areas extending from the eastern Mediterranean to the Red Sea, southcentral Ethiopia, southern Caspian Sea and the northern Indian Ocean east to Myanmar, rarely to Thailand (Del Hoyo et al. 1996; Burger et al. 2013). According to Ali (2002), it is a non-breeding visitor to the coasts and larger rivers of the Indian subcontinent; also Sri Lanka and lower region of Nepal. Zhang et al. (2014) has reported the Bay of Bengal, with extensive areas of coastal mudflats as an important non-breeding area for Pallas’s and other gull species (Fig. 2).

From Migrant Watch (MW) database (e-group), arrival and departure dates (2008–2014) of Pallas’s Gull across different parts in India were compiled. An analysis of the observations revealed that the birds are observed to arrive from the second week of September onwards and they start migrating north and leaving the country between 8 March and 13 May. As per the MW database, the favoured non-breeding sites have been mostly in the southern and coastal states of India such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala, and West Bengal, with a few sightings in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand (Table 1). It was also evident that the arrival date of the species varies with latitude, with birds arriving in the northern states a little earlier than in the southern states.

According to Aarif et al. (2011) the earliest arrival date was 14 September 2008 in West Bengal. Our 6 September sighting is consistent with the findings of Zhang et al. (2014) of satellite tracked birds departing from Qinghai Lake between 2 and 14 August and arriving between 3 November and 3 December in West Bengal (India), which lies due south of Sikkim.

To understand how long the species may stop in the Sikkim State on migration, we surveyed the Singtam Valley area for five days following the 21 March observation. We, however, failed to see any more birds and conclude that the individuals may have proceeded northward. The timing of our observation falls within the northward migration revealed by Zhang et al. (2014) where marked birds departed from their non-breeding sites in the Bay of Bengal between 18 February and 30 March and arrived in Qinghai Lake between 23 March and 2 May.

Sikkim lies along the western part of the East Asian-Australasian flyway as well as in the Central Asian Flyway and the state’s wetlands including Khecheopalri Lake (1,790m), Tsomgo Lake (3,660m), Gurudongmar Lake (5,180m) and Cholamu Lake (5,330m), and the different river valleys are important stop-over sites for different migratory bird species. The high altitude (>5,000m) wetlands are well protected due to government legislations but the low elevation (300–700 m) riverine wetland/areas located along Singtam and Rangpo stretch in East Sikkim have been declared as an industrial corridor of the state. They are subjected to various types of anthropogenic threats, including sand/boulder mining, encroachment, deforestation and habitat fragmentation. These threats may affect these stopover sites of the Pallas’s Gull and other migratory species. Zhang et al. (2014) have reported that the numbers of Pallas’s Gull breeding at Qinghai Lake had fallen dramatically from over 87,000 in the 1970s to about 15,000 in present times, attributed mainly due to local tourism linked to rapid economic development in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Moreover, recently Pallas’s Gull has been found to feed on toxic Lunartail Puffer Lagocephalus lunaris around the coastal areas of Purba Midnapur, West Bengal to Talsari, Odisha (Datta et al. 2016).

Long term monitoring of this species is required to determine its arrival and departure dates, stopover areas, migration routes and habitat requirements in and around the state of Sikkim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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