Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2023 | 15(5): 23270–23272

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

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8248.15.5.23270-23272

#8248 | Received 01 November 2022 | Final received 15 April 2023 | Finally accepted 18 May 2023

Photographic evidence of the Indian Pangolin Manis crassicaudata Geoffroy, 1803 (Mammalia: Pholidota: Manidae), in Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, Bihar, India

Mujahid Ahamad ¹, Umar Saeed ², Vivek Ranjan ³, Syed Ainul Hussain ⁴, Ruchi Badola ⁵ & S. Kumarasamy ⁶

^1–5 Department of Eco-Development Planning and Participatory Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun,

Uttrakhand 248001, India.

⁶ Environment, Forest & Climate Change Department, QFHF+W2H, Office of Divisional Forest Officer, Purnea, Thana Chowk Road, near Head Post Office, PWD Colony, Purnia, Bihar 854301, India.

¹ syedmujahidahmad@gmail.com, ² umar2673@gmail.com (corresponding author), ³ vivek.nil@gmail.com, ⁴ ainul.hussain@gmail.com,

⁵ ruchi@wii.gov.in, ⁶ samyifs@yahoo.co.in

Editor: Anwaruddin Choudhury, The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North East India, Guwahati, India. Date of publication: 26 May 2023 (online & print)

Citation: Ahamad, M., U. Saeed, V. Ranjan, S.A. Hussain, R. Badola & S. Kumarasamy (2023). Photographic evidence of the Indian Pangolin Manis crassicaudata Geoffroy, 1803 (Mammalia: Pholidota: Manidae), in Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, Bihar, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(5): 23270–23272. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8248.15.5.23270-23272

Copyright: © Ahamad et al. 2023. 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: The study is funded by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL).

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: We sincerely thank: the Rohtas Forest Division, Sasaram (Environment, Forests and Climate Change Department, Government of Bihar); Brij Lal Manjhi, range officer of Rohtas Forest Range; the forest guards of the concerned beats officer and other field support staff who accompanied us; and Rashmi Das for her review of the manuscript.

The Indian Pangolin Manis crassicaudata is the most ancient insectivore species belonging to the order Pholidota and the family Manidae (Heath 1995). In India, two species of pangolins are found: the Indian Pangolin M. crassicaudata, also called the thick-tailed Pangolin, and the Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla. The Indian Pangolin is distributed in southern Asia, from parts of eastern Pakistan through much of India, south of the Himalaya, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (Schlitter 2005; Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu 2012), while the Chinese Pangolin is present in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal, southern Bhutan, and northeastern India (Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu 2012; ZSI 2002). The Indian Pangolin is a medium-sized mammal covered dorsally by 11–13 rows of scales (Mahmood et al. 2020). A terminal scale is also present on the ventral side of the tail, which is absent in the Chinese Pangolin.

The Indian Pangolin is ‘Endangered’ according to the IUCN Red List (Mahmood et al. 2019). It is also protected as a Schedule I species under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and listed in Appendix I of CITES due to being one of the highest-trafficked animals. There is a significant problem of poaching and high demand for its meat, scales, and use in traditional medicine in the international illegal wildlife trading markets (Anonymous 1992; Brown et al. 1996). Furthermore, it is considered a delicacy in many southeastern Asian and European countries (Newton et al. 2008). These factors have led to a declining population trend of the Indian Pangolin across its range (Heinrich et al. 2016; Mahmood et al. 2019).

The current study was conducted in the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), which covers an area of 1,504.96 km² in Bihar (24.594–24.978 ⁰N to 83.501–84.078 ⁰E). According to Champion and Seth (1968), the forest type of KWS is Northern mixed deciduous forest. The dominant tree species of KWS is predominantly composed of Shorea robusta, Terminalia chebula, Cassia fistula, Diospyros manoxylon, Acacia catechu, Terminalia tomentosa, Butea monosperma, Madhuca indica, and Boswellia serrata (Bhattacharyya & Ghosh 2004). A reconnaissance survey was carried out between 27 June 2019 and 2 July 2019, in the Rohtas and Adhaura range of KWS. The survey aimed to assess the extent and nature of the work involved in the study. A total of 30 km were covered on foot and by vehicle in the exclusion zones (19 km) and inclusion zones (11 km). The specific area i.e., the exclusion block area in question would be excluded from the sanctuary for mining purposes, while another area, i.e., the inclusion block area would be included within the Sanctuary (block area depicted in Figure 1).

The first photographic documentation of an Indian Pangolin within the KWS has been recorded in the Rohtas region, which is contiguous to the Adhaura range of the Sanctuary. The habitat in this area is dry deciduous, dominated by Acacia catechu and Terminalia tomentosa species. Literature on the Indian Pangolin at the landscape level is scarce. Due to immense poaching and increasing demand for its meat and scales, as well as its use in traditional medicine in the international illegal wildlife trading markets, the population of Indian Pangolins is declining across their habitat (Mahmood et al. 2012). According to TRAFFIC India, nearly 6,000 Pangolins were poached in India between 2009 and 2017 (Ghosh 2020). The preliminary observation suggests that the Sanctuary holds significant wildlife value, as approximately 15 mammalian species were recorded during our reconnaissance survey. Therefore, a detailed ecological assessment is essential to evaluate the biodiversity value of the Sanctuary.

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