Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day Butterflies of Baghmara Buffer Zone Community Forest Checklist of serpents in Institute of Forestry, Hetauda Campus Complex Mammals of Bhimsen Thapa Rural Municipality Distribution of Sikkim Caecilian in Nepal First Record of King Cobra from Okhaldhunga and Sankhuwasabha districts Predation of Common Tree Frog by Ornate Flying Snake 2 Editorial The world is not the same as when we first called for articles for this issue. The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Inside this issue the recently discovered novel strain of coronavirus formally known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), has forced many countries into a complete 3 Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate lockdown affecting every aspect of life. While most of us International Vulture Awareness Day in Nepal might be working from home and keeping ourselves K.P. Bhusal and D.B. Rana isolated, some are fighting this pandemic in the frontline. 7 Butterflies of Baghmara Buffer Zone Community To them, we express our sincere gratitude. Forest, Chitwan, Nepal So far, the general consensus is that the virus originated from a wet market of Wuhan, Hubei Province, R. Sedhain, D.R. Thanet, S. Bhattarai, R.R. Subedi and T.B. Gurung China as a result of wildlife trade. However, this is not new as spillover viral and bacterial infections from wildlife have 16 Checklist of serpents in Institute of Forestry, been known to occur in the past too. Take for example Hetauda Campus Complex, Makwanpur, Nepal Ebola, MERS, SARS and HIV which were viral infections A. Pradhan, S. Bajagain and R. Sedhain transferred from wildlife to humans. Although these were 20 Mammals of Bhimsen Thapa Rural Municipality, all serious diseases, none had so grimly affected the world Gorkha in this way and in this scale. The world cannot ignore wildlife exploitation and A. Basnet, B.S. Bist and P. Ghimire trade anymore. Conservationists, scientists and health 24 Distribution of Sikkim Caecilian in Nepal workers from all around the globe are now pushing the world leaders and governments to ban wildlife trade K.B. Thapa and K.B. Shah completely and instantly. 28 First record of King Cobra from Okhaldhunga and This is a difficult time for everyone around the Sankhuwasabha districts, Eastern Nepal world. Even so, we cannot help see the silver lining. Air K. Devkota, B. KC and K.B. Shah pollution has dropped, global carbon emission is lower. Clips of wildlife invading cities are going viral. These all 31 Photos from the wild point to the possibilities of the future we can create. We C. Sherpa can tip the world to a better future that has clean air to 34 Predation of Common Tree Frog by Ornate Flying breathe, no climate worries and space for wildlife. Snake at Satchari National Park, Bangladesh At the end, we apologize for the delay. Being a small team of volunteers with full-time jobs has pushed our T. Ahmed, S. Hasan and H. Naher publication date once again. 36 Nature close to us We would like to thank the authors for their Saroj Khadka and Samundra Ghimerey articles and all the reviewers for their valuable time and expertise. Please practice social distancing, wash your hands DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed in the articles are and stay safe. The world needs you. those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the editorial board or Friends of Nature. Email: [email protected] Editors FRONT COVER PHOTO Impeyan pheasant by Bidhan Adhikary Nepal CHUNGBA SHERPA Jeevan Rai Nepal Mohammad Abidur Rahman Bangladesh Yadav Ghimirey Nepal Impeyan pheasant, known as Danphe in Nepali, is Advisor the national bird of Nepal. This individual was photographed at Phortse, Sagarmatha National Raju Acharya Nepal Park. Designer Bidhan Adhikary Nepal BACK COVER PHOTO Mt. Everest by CHUNGBA SHERPA 3 Short Communication Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day in Nepal KRISHNA PRASAD BHUSAL1* and DEU BAHADUR RANA1 1Bird Conservation Nepal, Lazimpat, Kathmandu *Email for correspondence: [email protected] Abstract In the 1990s, two species of Gyps vulture, bengalensis and Slender-billed Vulture (SBV) G. White-rumped and Slender-billed underwent catastrophic tenuirostris have undergone partial recoveries in Nepal population decline in Nepal. This triggered concerted between 2012/13 and 2018 based on their counts during conservation effort throughout the country. On the 11th nationwide road transect surveys (Galligan et al. 2019). International Vulture Awareness Day which was International Vulture Awareness Day, part of the celebrated across Nepal on 7th September 2019, for the broader conservation initiative, is celebrated on the first first time, vulture counts were simultaneously conducted Saturday of September since 2009. The event involves in 32 districts at their known occurrence sites. A total of various education, awareness and advocacy related 1,905 individuals of seven species were counted across activities for vulture conservation. In 2019, Bird Nepal. This survey is an important addition to our Conservation Nepal initiated an annual ‘Vulture Count’ understanding of vulture populations in Nepal and will throughout the country to provide a reference estimate serve as a reference for future counts. of all vulture species to compare future counts. These figures will be extremely important for future reference Keywords Count, Vulture, Vulture day, Vulture Safe to these species’ status as shown by the nationwide road Zone transect survey. Here we report the results of the first __________________________________________ synchronised vulture count in Nepal carried out during International Vulture Awareness Day 2019. Introduction Vultures are obligate scavengers of carrion, which depends on the carcasses of both domestic and wild animals for food. They have the potential to limit the spread of various diseases such as rabies (Markandya et al. 2008), and are revered by local communities as symbols of a clean environment (Bhusal et al. 2019). In the 1990s, the population of Gyps vulture underwent a catastrophic decline of over 99% across South Asia (Prakash et al. 2017), including Nepal (Chaudhary et al. 2012). This decline was mostly due to unintentional poisoning by diclofenac (Oaks et al. 2004), a veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) commonly used to treat domestic ungulates since the ANKIT BILASH JOSHI 1990s. Nepal responded well by carrying out an extensive FIG. 1: Vulture flock feeding on a carcass in the bank of programme for vulture conservation including the ban in Narayani river. the manufacture, import and use of diclofenac in 2006 Methods (Bhusal 2018). This resulted in declaration of 70 districts covering 95% of the country as Diclofenac Free Zones Surveys were conducted by volunteers from local (DFZ). The Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) concept, pioneered by conservation NGOs and communities. Surveyors counted Nepal, was an important step forward to vulture vultures at all known breeding, roosting and foraging sites conservation in the country. Furthermore, community- in 32 districts covering all three geographic regions of the managed safe feeding sites popularly known as vulture country, the Himalayas, mid-hills and Terai (lowlands). restaurants, and concerted advocacy and education Observation sites in each district varied between one and within local communities were equally important. The four based on previous knowledge of the nesting sites, Government of Nepal also readily endorsed the Vulture roosting sites and associated information on vulture Conservation Action Plan for the years 2009-2013 and movements in those districts. Most of the counts were 2015-2019 (DNPWC 2015) which helped to provide made on the International Vulture Awareness Day, 7th momentum to the vulture conservation activities already September 2019. Possibility of repeated counts was very initiated and ensured the continued success of vulture low considering the vultures were breeding and were conservation in the country. As a result, the two critically unlikely to travel far from their nesting sites. The counts endangered White-rumped Vulture (WRV) Gyps were carried out either between 08h00 – 11h00 or 15h00 © Friends of Nature, The Himalayan Naturalist, 3(1), 3-6 Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day in Nepal 4 – 17h00 for increased probability of sighting during that considered when comparing our estimates with other period. Observers used binoculars and/or spotting scopes counts. for proper identification of the vulture species. All nine The number of WRV and SBV recorded in this species of vultures found in Nepal - WRV, SBV, Indian study constituted about 50% and 75% of the total Vulture (IV) G. indicus, Himalayan Griffon (HG) G. estimated national populations of the respective species himalayensis, Eurasian Griffon (EG) G. fulvus, Red-headed from Nepal (Inskipp et al. 2016). The number of WRV and Vulture (RHV) Sarcogyps calvus, Cinereous Vulture (CV) SBV recorded during the event was far higher than the Aegypius monachus, Bearded Vulture (BV) Gypaetus number recorded during last year’s road transect surveys barbatus and Egyptian Vulture (EV) Neophron which was 100 and 4 respectively (Galligan et al. 2019). percnopterus were assessed. However, the numbers are hardly comparable due to the difference in methods used as well as difference in the time of carrying out the surveys. The count sites for this study were targeted to include known breeding, roosting and foraging sites, covering about 80% of the known range of these species, whereas the road transect surveys primarily recorded flying birds and may also include areas where vulture densities are low (Galligan et al. 2019). Purposeful selection of known sites might have contributed to our significantly higher counts. FIG. 2: Map showing location of sites in 32 districts of Nepal where vultures were counted. Results Of the nine vulture species known from Nepal, seven species were recorded. Exceptions were Eurasian Griffon, a passage migrant, and Indian Vulture, a rare vagrant to Nepal.