JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH Journal homepage: www.jakraya.com/journal/jwr SHORT NOTE First Sighting Record of Indian Spotted Eagle ( Changa Hastata ) in Akola District, Maharashtra Mr. Shishir M Shendokar * *Wildlife and Environment Conservation Society, 42, Green Park Colony, Shegaon Road, Amravati, Maharashtra. Abstract On 19 November 2015 Indian Spotted Eagle has been sighted at Panjabrao Deshmukh krushi vidhyapeeth, Akola. This was the first sighting * Corresponding Author: record of the Indian Spotted Eagle from Akola district. There are very few * sighting records of this bird in Vidarbha other than this. Indian Spotted Mr. Shishir M Shendokar Eagle is widespread but a poorly known species. Its population is declining Email:
[email protected] that could be the reason it has been categorised as vulnerable by IUCN. Sighting records of such threatened species are very important because this is a baseline data which could be used to study the species further. Past Received: 27/11/2017 sightings of this species in Vidarbha province of Maharashtra along with Accepted: 24/12/2017 the reasons of its sightings and migrations routes have been discussed in this research note. Keywords: Indian Spotted Eagle, Sighting records, Vidarbha region. Indian Spotted Eagle (Changa hastata ) appears agriculture, wetlands and open forest and forest to be wide spread species that has always been clearin g year round (Davidson, 2003). recorded at very low densities in the lowlands of the On 19 November 2015 early in the morning Sun Indian subcontinent occurring in Pakistan, Nepal, India spread a golden light around 0705 hr at Panjabrao and Myanmar (Robson, 2000; Parry et al., 2002; Deshmukh Krushi Vidyapeeth (PDKV), Akola research Rasmussen and Anderton, 2005).