Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2021 | 13(7): 18956–18958

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6658.13.7.18956-18958

#6658 | Received 02 September 2020

Comments on the “A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape, India”

P.O. Nameer

Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala 680656, India.

Citation: Nameer, P.O. (2021). Comments on the “A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape, India”. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(7): 18956–18958. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6658.13.7.18956-18958

Copyright: © Nameer 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.

I would like to commend Naulak & Pradhan (2020) for their recent publication ‘A checklist of the mammals of Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape, India’. The region-specific taxonomic checklists are extremely useful for long-term conservation of biodiversity. I congratulate the authors for their attempt to bring out the publication on the “Checklist of mammals of Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas”. However, in their checklist, Naulak & Pradhan (2020) include some doubtful species for which some additional information is solicited, without which their paper does not add any value and, instead, only adds more confusion to the mammalian literature of the Sikkim and Darjeeling region. Therefore, I provide the following comments:

Appendix I, # 122: Fishing Cat, Prionailurus viverrinus

The presence of Fishing Cat in Sikkim is doubtful. Naulak & Pradhan (2020) include this species based on two publications (Avasthe & Jha 1999; Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu 2012). However, Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2012) does not mention a fishing cat in Sikkim. Details in Avasthe & Jha (1999) could not be verified, but this being a non-peer-reviewed publication, one cannot accept this as the sole reference to validate the presence of a fishing cat in Sikkim.

In India, fishing cats have been recorded from Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh (Mukherjee et al. 2012, 2016), Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand, Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Mukherjee et al. 2012) and Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (Sadhu & Reddy 2013) in Rajasthan, Kaziranga Karbi Anglong Landscape (Mukherjee et al. 2016) and Manas Tiger Reserve (Mukherjee et al. 2016) in Assam, Valmiki Tiger Reserve (Mukherjee et al. 2016) in Bihar, Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (Mukherjee et al. 2012; Malla & Sivakumar 2014) in Andhra Pradesh and Namdapha Tiger Reserve (Mukherjee et al. 2016) in Arunachal Pradesh. Outside the protected area network, records exist from Pilibhit Forest Division (Mukherjee et al. 2016) in Uttar Pradesh, in small wetland patches in West Bengal near Kolkata, and its suburbs like the Howrah and Hooghly districts (Adhya et al. 2011), in Medinipur and Nadia districts and the human-dominated north-eastern part of Chilika Lake and Tangi district (Mukherjee et al. 2016) in Odisha.

Thus, pertinent literature supporting the presence of a fishing cat in Sikkim is warranted if the record in Naulak & Pradhan (2020) is to be accepted.

Appendix I, # 139. Bengal Fox, Vulpes bengalensis

The presence of Bengal Fox from Darjeeling in Naulak & Pradhan (2020) is based on Agrawal et al. (1992), Saha et al. (1992) and Mallick (2012). Of these, Mallick (2012), and Saha et al. (1992), do not record this species from Darjeeling and Agrawal et al. (1992) report are based on a historical reference (Dash 1947). Moreover, Jhala (2016) does not record this species from Darjeeling.

Appendix I, # 143. Brown Bear, Ursus arctos

The presence of Brown Bear in Sikkim is based on Avasthe & Jha (1999) and Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2012). According to Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2012), Brown Bear is seen in the Himalayas in India, but there is no specific mention of the presence of Brown Bear in Sikkim. Avasthe & Jha (1999), on the other hand, being a non-peer-reviewed publication, cannot be accepted for establishing the occurrence of a species from a hitherto unreported region. Moreover, McLellan et al. (2017) does not report the species from Sikkim.

Appendix I, # 146. Eurasian Otter, Lutra lutra

The Eurasian Otter is included primarily based on either historical or ‘grey literature, from both Darjeeling (Dalgilesh 1906; Wroughton 1916a, 1917; Agrawal et al. 1992), as well as Sikkim (Wroughton 1916b; Sanborn 1932; Avasthe & Jha 1999; Chattopadhyay et al. 2006). Chattopadhyay et al. (2006), a recent study, included Lutra lutra from Sikkim after Ghose & Biswas (1982), who did not provide any evidence. In this context, the presence of Eurasian Otter in this region cannot be accepted.

Appendix I, # 152. Himalayan Stoat or Ermine, Mustela erminea

The Ermine has been claimed to be occurring in Sikkim based on Vijayan et al. (2004) and Lepcha et al. (2017). However, Vijayan et al. (2004) make only a passing reference about the ‘sighting’ of an ermine from Sikkim, without any further details. Furthermore, neither any notes nor any pictures were provided; while Lepcha et al. (2017) could not be verified, but this being a non-peer-reviewed publication, more evidence are required before this species can be included in the Sikkim mammal list. Moreover, Ermine is known only from the Ladakh region in India to this date (Reid et al. 2016).

Appendix I, # 164. Red Muntjac, Muntiacus vaginalis

Though a taxonomic revision was proposed for Muntiacus muntjac, splitting the currently known species into three species has not been recognized (Mattioli 2011). Therefore, this species name should be changed to Muntiacus muntjac.

Appendix I, # 168. Takin, Budorcas taxicolor

A recent taxonomic revision of the Takin has led to two subspecies being elevated to distinct species, the Mishmi Takin Budorcas taxicolor and the Bhutan Takin Budorcas whitei (Groves & Leslie 2011), and it is the latter species that occurs in Sikkim.

Appendix I, # 172. Argali, Ovis ammon

The Altai Argali, Ovis ammon, is currently confined to Eastern Russia, Eastern Kazakhstan, Western Mongolia and North-West China (Groves & Leslie 2011), and the species present in India, including Sikkim, is the Tibetan Argali Ovis hodgsoni.

The comments and clarifications provided above need to be considered before the checklist of Naulak & Pradhan (2020) is used by biodiversity managers, scientists and inetrested public. It will also be beneficial if the authors correct the above errors and publish a corrigendum. This will help prevent misleading information to enter the published literature in future. Finally, there are also some errors in the spelling of scientific names (for e.g., Mustela ermine), which also need to be thoroughly checked, corrected and updated.

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