Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2022 | 14(2): 20677–20679
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7660.14.2.20677-20679
#7660 | Received 14
September 2021 | Final received 27 January 2022 | Finally accepted 09 February
2022
First photographic evidence of
Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus in Kaziranga Tiger
Reserve, India
Priyanka Borah 1, Jyotish Ranjan Deka 2, Mujahid Ahamad 3, Rabindra Sharma 4, Ruchi Badola 5 & Syed Ainul
Hussain 6
1,2,3,5,6 Wildlife Institute of India, Post
box #18, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001,
India.
4 Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve,
Bokakhat, Golaghat, Assam
785612, India.
1 priyankaborah1996@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 jyotishdeka6@gmail.com, 3 syedmujahidahmad@gmail.com,
4 kazirangaresearch@gmail.com, 5 ruchi@wii.gov.in, 6
ainul.hussain@gmail.com
Editor: Anwaruddin Choudhury, The Rhino Foundation for Nature in
North East India, Guwahati, India.
Date of publication: 26 February 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Borah, P., J.R. Deka, M. Ahamad, R. Sharma, R. Badola
& S.A. Hussain (2022). First
photographic evidence of Asiatic Black Bear Ursus
thibetanus in Kaziranga
Tiger Reserve, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(2): 20677–20679. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7660.14.2.20677-20679
Copyright: © Borah et al. 2022. 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: National Tiger Conservation
Authority (NTCA), Ministry
of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Government of India
through the project “Connecting the dots: Finding dispersal
corridors for tiger in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape, Assam”, Grant No.
F.No.5-3/2018- NTCA.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: This study was funded by the
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Ministry of Environment Forest
and Climate Change, Government of India through the project “Connecting the
dots: Finding dispersal corridors for tiger in Kaziranga-Karbi
Anglong Landscape, Assam”, Grant No.
F.No.5-3/2018-NTCA. The authors are thankful to the chief wildlife warden,
Government of Assam and field director, Kaziranga Tiger
Reserve for providing necessary permission and facilities for the
research work. The authors are thankful to the director and dean, Wildlife
Institute of India, Dehra Dun for logistic support.
The Asiatic Black Bear Ursus thibetanus,
also commonly known as the Himalayan Black Bear and sometimes known as ‘Moon
Bear’ due to the presence of a characteristic crescent shaped white mark on the
upper portion of the chest. It is listed
as ‘Vulnerable’ in the Red Data Book (Garshelis &
Steinmetz 2020), in Appendix I of CITES in India since 1990 and in Schedule I
of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act (as amended in 2006). The Asiatic
Black Bear occupies a variety of forested habitats, both broad-leaf and
coniferous, from near sea level to an elevation up to 4,300 m (Sathyakumar et al. 2013). It is distributed in southern and
eastern Asia from Afghanistan and Baluchistan Province of Iran, east through
Indo-China, much of China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan (Cowan 1972; Servheen 1990). In India, the bear is distributed
throughout the Himalaya (Sathyakumar 2001) from the
north-west (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh) to the east (Arunachal
Pradesh) and in the hills of the other northeastern states (Assam, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, and Manipur) (Sathyakumar
2006; Sathyakumar & Choudhury 2007; Choudhury
2013). Literature suggests that its range overlaps with that of the Sloth Bear
below 1,200 m, the Himalayan Brown Bear above 3,000 m (Prater 1980), and in
northeastern India with the Sun Bear (Choudhury 1997a,b). In India, the bear is reported to occur in 83
protected areas and 93 other localities (Sathyakumar
& Choudhury 2007).
Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (KTR) is located
in the flood plain of the Brahmaputra River, on the foot hills of Karbi Anglong district, spread
across the civil districts of Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, and Biswanath (Figure
1). The Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong
landscape consists of the Karbi plateau of Karbi Anglong to the south and
the Brahmaputra River to the north in Assam. The hills in Karbi
Anglong are part of the Shillong
plateau having an average elevation of 300–400 m. The highest peak called
‘Singhason Peak’ is 1,360 m high located in East Karbi Anglong. The Karbi Anglong forests and
grasslands of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve formed one
contiguous unit of ideal wildlife habitat.
We carried out camera trap
sampling involving several camera traps deployed in a manner so that at least
one station falls on each (2 x 2) km2 grid, as a part of the study
to determine the functionality of corridors present in the Kaziranga-Karbi
Anglong Landscape. We used infrared Cuddeback (Model: H1453) camera traps during the study.
In 2018, photographs of two
rescued cubs from a village called Dokmoka by Karbi Anglong Forest Department
were published in the official website of Wildlife Trust of India. In this
study, we report, the first photographic evidence of Asiatic Black Bear in the
wild of Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. The first deployment
of camera traps was started on February 2021 and subsequently the second
deployment of camera traps was carried out on May 2021. During this period a
single photograph of the species was captured on 12 May 2021 at 2124 h (Image
1). The species was photo-captured at an elevation of 75 m and the location
falls under the Bagser Reserve Forest (buffer of Kaziranga National Park). The location also falls in the
junction of Amguri-Kanchanjuri corridor. The habitat
was moist mixed deciduous with Teak Tectona
grandis as the dominant species. The location is
approximately 275 m away from the National Highway 37. The proximity of human settlement is about
300 m from the point; hence, it has experienced high human intervention in
terms of cutting and lopping of fresh timbers and cane sticks in the area.
Literatures on the Asiatic Black
Bear from this landscape are very limited.
Choudhury (1997a,b) noted the presence of the species in the foothills
and hills of Assam, mostly in the Karbi, NC hills and
Cachar district. It was very much common in the
eastern Karbi Anglong and Barail Range. Lahan & Sonowal (1973)
reported a single record from Kaziranga.
Due to hunting and poaching, the
population has decreased globally over the years. Hunting/ poaching of all
species of bears is going on at different scales in all the states of
northeastern India, especially outside the protected areas for meat (Choudhury
& Rengma 2005). In the hilly areas of the region
such as Nagaland, Mizoram, parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, the
village hunters/poachers often keep the skulls as display on their walls
(Choudhury 2013). Thus, the presence of the Asiatic Black Bear needs more
systematic surveys in the tiger reserve along with the southern landscape.
For
figure & Image - - click here
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