Predation by Marsh Harrier Circus Aeruginosus on Chick of Sarus Crane Grus Antigone Antigone in Kota, Rajasthan

2005·1 MB·

by  Jatinder Kaur

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
REFERENCES
Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (1989): Handbook ofthe Birds ofIndia and Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1998): Birds ofthe Indian
Pakistan. Vol. 1. Divers to Hawks. Oxford University Press, Subcontinent. OxfordUniversity Press,NewDelhi. Pp. 573-574.
Bombay. Pp 93-103. Kahl, M.P. (1973): Comparative ethology ofthe Ciconiidae. Part 6.
Bevanger, K. (1998): Biological and conservation aspects of bird The Black-necked, Saddlebill, and Jabiru Storks (Genera
mortalitycausedbyelectricitypowerlines:areview.Biol.Conserv. Xenorhvnchus, Ephippiorhynchus andJabiru). The Condor 75:
86: 67-76. 17-27.
Breeden, S. & B. Breeden (1982): The drought of 1979-1980 at the Rahmani, A.R. (1989): Status of the Black-necked Stork
KeoladeoGhanaSanctuary,Bharatpur,Rajasthan.J.BombayNat. Ephippiorhynchusasiaticus inthe Indian subcontinent. Forktail
Hist. Soc. 79: 1-37. 5: 99-110.
Elliott, A. (1992): Family Ciconiidae (Storks). Pp. 441-442. In: Wood, D.S. (1984): Concordance between classifications of the
HElalniodtbto&okJ.oSfatrhgeatBailr).dsLoyfntxheEdWiocrilodn.s,VoBlar1c.e(lEodnsa:.del Hoyo.J„A. C1i2c5:oni2i5d-a3e7.basedonbehavioural andmorphologicaldata.J. Orn.
—
7. RED-CRESTED POCHARD RHODONESSA RUFINA (PALLAS) IN KACHCHH
Though a winter visitor to Pakistan and northwest AP photographed the drake. We showed the photo to M.K.
India, including the Saurashtra region ofGujarat, the Red- Himmatsinhji, ourmentor, who confirmed the identification
crestedPochardRhodonessaruftna(Pallas),asfarasweknow, and advised us to inform the Society, hence this note.
has not been seen in Kachchh. Dr. Salim Ali’s survey of
Kachchh in 1943-44failedtoobserve it.Theearlierpublished February24,2003 S.N. VARU
listsofDr. FerdinandStoliczkaandA.C. Humedonotinclude TempleStreet,JunaVas,
RhodonessaruftnainKachchh.AliandRipley(1968)mention Madhapur, Bhuj,
that this diving duck is common and locally abundant, Kachchh370020,Gujarat, India.
particularly in Pakistan and northwest India. Roberts (1991)
says that it has a limited breeding range in ‘warmer steppic N.N. BAPAT
latitudes in centralAsiaandTurkestan. It is awintermigrant 18,VanViharSociety,Bhuj,
visitorto Pakistan which hasnow become ratherrare.’ Kachchh37000 Gujarat,India.
1,
WehadgonetoMandvitalukaonJanuary 19,2003 for
ourannualAsianmid-winterwaterbirdcensus. Onourwayto T.B. CHHAYA
oneofthe countsites, we stopped atthetank ofDon village, 1, Santosh Society, Bhuj,
whereafairnumberofduckswerepresent. Whilewewatched Kutch370001,Gujarat,India.
the ducks through our binoculars we noticed a pair of
Rhodonessa rufina amongst them. The drake was ASHWIN POMAL
unmistakable with hishandsome plumageand red bill, and it PomalJewellers,VoklaChowk,Bhuj,
did nottake longto identifythe duck swimmingbeside him. Kutch37000 Gujarat,India.
1,
REFERENCES
All Salim& S.D. Ripley (1968): Handbookofthe BirdsofIndiaand Roberts,T.J. (1991):The BirdsofPakistan,Vol. 1,OxfordUniversity
Pakistan, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, Bombay. Press, Karachi.
8. PREDATION BY MARSH HARRIER CIRCUS AERUGINOSUS ON CHICK
OF SARUS CRANE GRUSANTIGONE ANTIGONE IN KOTA, RAJASTHAN
The Sarus Crane Grus antigone antigone is a Few ecological studies on Sarus Cranes have
threatened speciesfound largely in north and central India. It examined indetailthevariousaspectsofitsbreedingbiology,
is a large-bird species that has suffered a rapid population nest-site requirements and existing threats to breeding sites,
decline in recenttimes as aresultofwidespread reduction in as also the causes ofchick mortality.
the extent and quality of wetland habitats that are being BreedingbiologyoftheSarusCranewasstudiedinthe
converted to agriculture fields (BirdLife International 2001, semi-arid landscape of Kota and Bharatpur districts of
Sundaretal.2000). RajasthanfromFebruary2000toJune2002. Dataonnumber
102 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (1), Jan-Apr 2005
,
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
ofeggs laid, egg-loss, number ofhatchlings and hatchling period. A Marsh Harrier attacked this chick and repeatedly
mortalitywasrecorded.Thenestsweremonitoredtillthetime pecked itshead,causingsevere injury, butflewawaywithout
the chicks reachedjuvenile stage and subsequently weaning feedingonthechick.Althoughtheharrierwasclearlypreying
successwascalculated. SixSarusCranefamilieswerechosen upon on the chick, the reason for abandoningthe prey is not
and intensively monitored till the hatchling reached the clear. The injured chickdiedwithin twohoursandthe parent
weaned stage. It was found that fledgling success was birds leftthe feeding area and moved away.
affected both by natural causes such as predation, wetness Predators previously recorded for Sarus Crane chicks
ofnestingsite, food availability, aswell asbyanthropogenic includejackals(Walkinshaw 1973;RamachandranandVijayan
causes such as egg robbing and prevalent agricultural 1994)anddogs(MukherjeeandBorad,pers. obs.).Although
practices. Mortality of Sarus Crane recorded in the study an observation of a male Sarus Crane calling loudly and
area fortwo consecutive years has been shown in Table 1. chasing a Marsh Harrier from its nesting territory has been
recorded previously, indicating the possibility of chick
predationbylargeraptors(Iqubal 1992;Mukherjeeetal.2002),
Table 1: Mortality of Sa2r0u0s0-C2r0a0n1e young in Kota district the present study confirms and records predation by Marsh
( )
Harrier.
Reasons for Mortality
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Year Total no of Dog Marsh Human- Unknown
chicks hatched Harrier related
WethankMr. S.B. Sawarkar,Director,Wildlife Institute
2000 17 2 0 1 12 ofIndia, DehraDunandtheChiefWildlifeWarden, Rajasthan
2001 34 0 1 0 16
for their help. Meena and Gopi Sundar are thanked for
comments on the manuscript.
Thechosenfocal-familieswerealsoexaminedforparent-
chick interactions using the scan sampling method. During January2,2003 JATINDER KAUR
thecourse ofthese observationson oneofthe focal families, B.C. CHOUDHURY
consisting oftwo chicks 40 and 39 days old, an incident of Wildlife InstituteofIndia,
chick predation was noted. While the parents were feeding PostBoxNo. 18,
one ofthe chicks, the second chickwhich was feeding alone DehraDun24800
1
25-30mawayfromtheparents,wasleftunattendedforabrief Uttaranchal, India.
REFERENCES
BirdLifeInternational(2001):ThreatenedBirdsofAsia:TheBirdLife Ramachandran,N.K. & V.S. Vijayan(1994): Distributionandgeneral
InternationalRedDataBook. BirdLifeInternational,Cambridge, ecologyoftheSarusCrane(Grusantigone)inKeoladeoNational
U.K. Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 91(2):
Iqubal, P. (1992): Breedingbehaviour in Sarus Crane Grusantigone 211-223.
antigone. M.Sc. Thesis, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Sundar, K.S.G., J. Kaur & B.C. Choudhury (2000): Distribution,
India. demography and conservation status ofthe Indian Sarus Crane
Mukherjee, A., C.K. Borad & B.M. Parasharya (2002): Breeding (Grus antigone antigone) in India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc
performance of the Indian Sarus Crane in the agricultural 97(3): 319-339.
landscapeofwestern India. BiologicalConservation 105'. 263- Walkinshaw, L.H. (1973): Cranes of the world. Winchester Press.
269. NewYork.
THE LESSER KESTREL FALCO NAUMANNIAND AMUR FALCON
9.
FALCO AMURENSIS IN THE GARO HILLS, MEGHALAYA, INDIA
Both the Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni and Amur throughout many areas in the Indian subcontinent. Visual
Falcon F. amurensis are mainly passage migrants to India. records are mainly between October and early-January, but
The Amur Falcon, which migrates in countless swarms in little is known of this large-scale migration involving
autumn, isalsoascarcebreederinnorth-eastern India(Baker thousands ofbirds. The weather pattern that triggers these
1928;Samantetal. 1995).Bothspeciesareoftenseentogether migrationsisalsonotknown.AliandRipley(1978)hadcollated
and migrate on a broad front, with confirmed sightings all availablerecordstill 1970. With the upsurgeofinterest in
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (1), Jan-Apr 2005 103