Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2021 | 13(2): 17837–17840
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5382.13.2.17837-17840
#5382 | Received 04 September 2019 | Final
received 08 December 2020 | Finally accepted 25 January 2021
Tawny Fish-owl Ketupa flavipes Hodgson,
1836 (Aves: Strigiformes: Strigidae):
recent record from Arunachal Pradesh, India
Malyasri Bhattacharya 1,
Bhupendra S. Adhikari 2 & G.V. Gopi 3
1,3 Department
of Endangered Species Management, 2 Department of Habitat Ecology,
Wildlife Institute of India, P.O. Box # 18, Chandrabani,
Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India.
1 me.malyasri@gmail.com,
2 adhikaribs@wii.gov.in, 3 gopigv@wii.gov.in
(corresponding author)
Editor: Hem Sagar Baral, Charles Sturt
University, Albury, Australia. Date of publication: 26 February
2021 (online & print)
Citation: Bhattacharya, M., B.S. Adhikari & G.V. Gopi (2021). Tawny
Fish-owl Ketupa flavipes Hodgson,
1836 (Aves: Strigiformes: Strigidae):
recent record from Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(2): 17837–17840. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5382.13.2.17837-17840
Copyright: © Bhattacharya et al. 2021. Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction,
and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to
the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the support and guidance received from
Director and Dean, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. We are grateful to the Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change for funding the project and officials of
Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department for permission, Indian Army, and ITBP for
extending their support. We extend our
gratitude to all the people of Zemithang Valley,
especially Mr. Degin Dorjee,
T-Gompa Government School & consultant WWF for his help during the surveys
and also to our field assistant Pemba Tsering Romo for his support in the field.
Fish-owls are important for indicating balanced stream
ecology as they are the top predators in freshwater ecosystems (Duncan 2003; Wu
et al. 2006). The Tawny Fish-owl Ketupa flavipes is
commonly found in the Himalaya, eastern Indo-China, southern China as well as
Taiwan (Voous 1988; Marks et al. 1999). The size of the owl can be up to 58cm, which
is among the largest owls found in India (Sun 1996; König et al. 2008). But it is so infrequently observed in the
wild that it is assumed rare over most of its range (Marks et al. 1999). It is currently listed under Schedule-IV of
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (WPA) and in CITES Appendix II.
Tawny Fish-owls are generally piscivorous, but also
eat small mammals, crabs, reptiles, birds, and insects (Fogden
1973; Sun & Wang 2004; Hong et al. 2013; Schauensee
1984; Ali 1986; Voous 1988; Mark et al. 1999). They mainly depend on streams for prey (Sun
1996; Wu et al. 2006) and their higher altitudinal range is decided by the distribution
of stream fishes (Voous 1988; Marks et al.
1999). Other than its breeding biology
and circadian rhythm (Sun et al. 1997), very little is known about this rare
and secretive Tawny Fish-owl (Voous 1988).
The sacred groves are an integral part of the local
community, as they perform rituals and ceremonies to please the deity for
wellbeing, prosperity and provide refuge to rare and threatened species
(Adhikari & Adhikari 2008). They
play a significant role in traditional resource conservation system in many
regions of India (Malhotra et al. 2001).
They can be considered as parts of forest conserved by the local
indigenous community because of their religious views and rituals that run
through several generations (Gadgil 1975; Meena &
Singh 2012).
The fading respect towards traditional knowledge among
youngsters and rapid socio-economic advancement has led to the deterioration of
sacred groves (Adhikari & Adhikari 2008).
In total, 101 sacred groves have been established in Arunachal Pradesh
with 36 in Tawang District (Krishna &
Amirthalingam 2014).
Zemithang Village
(27.718N & 91.726E) is located at an elevation of 2,439m on the bank of Nyamjang Chu (Chu stands for river; Figure 1). It encompasses montane sub-tropical,
temperate, and sub-alpine zones. This
river is one of the vital perennial rivers in the entire Tawang
River basin. Zemithang-Nelya
area has been identified as an important bird area (IBA code: INAR-28) with
several bird species listed as Vulnerable and Near Threatened by the IUCN (Rahmani & Islam 2004).
This large-sized predatory bird was observed on 31
July 2017 inside a sacred grove. Due to
a sudden and sharp alarm call from other birds, it was confirmed that some
large predator was sitting on the branches of Alder tree Alnus
nepalensis near the Zemithang
to Brokenthang road.
While observing through binoculars, it was found that the owl had pale
orange upperparts with distinct black streaking, bold orange buff on wing
coverts and flight feathers. There was
also a whitish patch on the forehead and a prominent black streaking on pale
rufous orange underparts. Based on
morphological characteristics and a distinct call like a deep whoo-whoo, it turned out to be the Tawny Fish-owl. A few photographs (Image 1) were also taken
to reconfirm the identification of the species because of the misidentification
possibility of the Tawny Fish-owl with the Brown Fish-owl. The sacred grove in Zemithang
is located in a small area with the dominance of Alnus
nepalensis trees in a waterlogged area. The other major plant species (trees, shrubs,
herbs, and grasses) found in the sacred
grove are, Salix sp., Celtis sp.,
Elaeagnus sp., Rubus sp., Girardina
macrophylla, Artemisia nilagirica, Kummerowia striata,
Paspalum paspaloides,
Vernonia cinerea, Geranium nepalense, Selaginella
sp., Galinsoga parviflora, Drymaria
cordata, Plantago
ovata, Arthraxon sp., Erianthus sikkimensis,
Sporobolus africanus, Pennisetum clandestinum,
Equisetum sp., and Cyperus compressus.
Local people of Arunachal Pradesh symbolizes the
sacred groves under Buddhist monasteries called as Gompa Forest Areas. The
sacred groves are managed by local Lamas and Monpa
tribes. Arunachal Pradesh has 58 Gompa Forest Areas, distributed mainly in Tawang and West Kameng districts
(Higgins et al. 2005).
This particular sacred grove is believed to be rare
and associated with high cultural significance in Monpa
values (Barbhuiya et al. 2008).
After the first sighting of Tawny Fish-owl, it was
continuously observed from August–November 2017 and January–February 2018
(Bhattacharya 2018). On 10 January 2018,
we observed a pair of Tawny Fish-owl
sitting on a branch of alder tree.
The species has its range in low elevation ranges up to 1,500m for the
Indian Himalayas (Ali & Ripley 1987; Grimmett et
al. 1998; Rasmussen & Anderton 2005; BirdLife
International 2018) along with Bhutan, China, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, and
Myanmar (Koker 2019; Holt et al. 2020). The species has also been reported earlier
from Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary (WS), Arunachal Pradesh
(Ritschard & Marques 2007) and Dibang Valley (preserved specimen, Choudhury 1998). There are many observational records from
Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Uttar Pradesh (Barua
& Sharma 1999; Praveen et al. 2018; Purkayastha
2018), and from Jim Corbett National Park and the Sattal
region of Uttarakhand (Koker 2019). The Tawny Fish-owl was not reported from Tawang District, hence, it is the first report. It is observed that the loss of natural
forests due to road and dam construction is very high in the valleys. This might have led to the decrease of the
Tawny Fish-owl population since riparian natural forests are the main habitat
type used by fish owls (Hayashi 1997; Sun et al. 2000). Therefore, the conservation of such
lesser-known species signifies the necessity to protect these small sacred
groves. The developmental projects such
as roads, dams, and highways, as well as encroachment to forest areas are the
major causes of concern for the conservation of these sacred groves (Adhikari
& Adhikari 2008). Hunting is
completely absent in this region due to the religious belief of the Monpa tribes inhabiting the area (Gopi et al. 2018)
however, a proposed hydroelectric project, as well as sand mining practices in
the area act as a major threat to the species.
We recommend specific research to be carried out to understand the
status, distribution, and habitat use of
the species in the region.
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