Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2017 | 9(11): 10953–10955
Population size, herd structure and sex ratio of the Blackbuck Antilope Cervicapra (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) in a human dominated area in Odisha, India
Subrat Debata
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation of Natural Resources, Central University of Orissa, Koraput, Odisha 764021, India
Aranya Foundation, 625/12, Mars Villa, Panchasakha Nagar, Dumduma, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751019, India
doi: http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2658.9.11.10953-10955
Editor: Priya Davidar, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, India. Date of publication: 26 November 2017 (online & print)Manuscript details: Ms # 2658 | Received 09 December 2016 | Final received 31 October 2017 | Finally accepted 05 November 2017
Citation: Debata, S. (2017). Population size, herd structure and sex ratio of the Blackbuck Antilope Cervicapra (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) in a human dominated area in Odisha, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 9(11): 10953–10955; http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2658.9.11.10953-10955
Copyright: © Debata 2017. 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: United Nations Development Programme.
Competing interests: The author declares no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The study was carried out with financial support from UNDP to Odisha State Forest Department for Natural Resources Conservation Outside Protected Areas. Late Dr. Chandra Sekhar Kar, Senior Research Officer, Office of PCCF and CWW, Odisha is highly acknowledged for his guidance.
The Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758) is a group-living animal native to India (Mallon 2008) and designated as Near Threatened in the Red List of Threatened Species (Mallon 2008). In India, it occurs in 80–100 isolated pockets along the plains and semi-natural habitats (Menon 2014). As most of its habitat falls outside protected areas, the population is vulnerable to shrinkage of habitat and competition with livestock (Mallon 2008).
I surveyed the Blackbucks in a human dominated area of Balipadar - Bhetnoi Blackbuck Conservation Area (BBBCA) (Fig. 1) in Odisha, eastern India from October 2012 to October 2013. I monitored the animals by walking along existing roads and trails (n=12; range: 0.75–2.5 km; total 263.4km) once a month from 06.00–10.00 hr and from 16.00–18.00 hr as per Ramesh et al. (2012) and Debata & Swain (2017). I classified the type of herds (single sex or mixed), age structure and sex ratio as per Herlekar (2014) and Prater (1980).
During the study, a total of 7,134 Blackbucks of completely identifiable age and sex class were recorded in 366 groups. Average herd size was 19.49 ± 0.03 (SE) ranging from one to 51 individuals. Herd size varied significantly between seasons with large congregations during the monsoon (One way ANOVA, F = 169.7; p<0.05; Table 1). Most herds had 11–20 individuals (Fig. 2) and female biased groups (Image 1) were more frequent (74.31%) than bachelor herds (Image 2) and solitary males (Image 3). Sex ratio was skewed towards females by 3:1 (Table 2). Herds consisted mostly of adults (44%), followed by sub adults (33%), yearlings (16%) and fawns (7%) (Table 3).
In BBBCA, the average herd size was higher during monsoon probably because of the fresh growth of grass (Ramesh et al. 2012; Debata & Swain 2017). Overall, a high percentage of adult female population (Table 3) indicates that the population can increase over time, due to lack of predators (excluding opportunistic and nominal predation by feral dogs) and protection by local communities (Kar 2001). Predation of Blackbucks by feral dogs, instances of crop raiding, particularly that of pulses were reported by local people. This could lead to antagonism towards this species. So it is crucial to declare the BBBCA as a ‘Conservation Reserve’, which will bring management interventions for their long term conservation.
References
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