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Ecology of the Indian Desert Gerbil, Meriones Hurrianae

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Ecology of the Indian Desert Gerbil, Meriones Hurrianae ECOLOGY OF THE INDIAN DESERT GERBIL, MERIONES HURRIANAE By ISHWAR PRAKASH leAR CENTRAL ARID ZONE RESEARCH INSTITUTE JODHPUR -SEPTEMBER -1981 CAZRI Monograph No. 10 Published IN tile Director, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur and Printed at the HarVard Press, Jodhpur 342003. CONTENTS Foreword i Preface iii Introduction 1 Taxonomy, Diagnosis and Geographical distribution 4 Population Ecology 5 Ecological distribution 5 Relative abundance 7 Rodent associations 9 Population structure 9 Seasonal population fluctuations 21 Burrows and their microclimate 30 Behavioural patterns 36 Food 42 Food IU nature 42 Stomach contents analysis 42 Unconsumed plants near burrow openings 45 Losses 50 Food in laboratory conditions 52 Bait preferences 55 Reproduction 61 The ventral marking gland 69 Adaptations for desert surviva 1 71 Behavioural 71 Physiological 72 Bibliogr aphy 79 FOREWORD Deserts are perpetually scarcity bio· tions in food supply. Realising their meso Even under natural conditions de­ potential as one of the desertification serts have a rather fragile ecological factor, CAZRI initiated intensive studies balance; even a slight disturbance by in early sixties on vertebrate pests of the man can disturb this balance. The In­ Indian Arid Zone. The CAZRI has been dian Arid Zone is even more vulnerable designated as the National Coordinafing since it is one of the most populated and· Moni toring Centre for Rodent Re­ deserts of the world and it faces severe search and Training in the Country. pressures of increasing human and live­ I am glad that Dr. Ishwar Prakash has stock populations. Rodents further ag­ collated and compiled his work on the gravate the desertification processes by Desert Gerbil, Meriones hurrianae, a depredating upon the sparse vegetation predominant rodent in the Indian Arid and disturbing the soil through their fos­ Zone. This monograph is one of the first sorial propensity. Due to their sheer detailed work on a single vertebrate numbers and omni-presence in almost species in India. I congratulate Dr. I. all the desert habitats, they have assum­ Prakash for his intensive studies on this ed a severe pest problem. Rodents are important desert species and for his physiologically and behaviourally well efforts to publish this work. adapted to climatic vagaries and fluctua- H. S. MANN 7 July 1981 Director Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur. PREFACE Even at this distance of time, I can serious efforts in this direction. c~arly recapitulate that in the years In the course of my studies on the 1950-54, d~ring my long walks through gerbil, I have received guidance', -en-' the desert .from the hostel to BirIa Col­ couragement and unstinted support from lege; at Pilani, I used to watch scores Prof. Daya Krishna, the late Dr. P. C. of little Indian desert gerbils either Raheja (1952-1964) and Dr. H. S. sitting close to their burrow openings, Mann 0971-continuing) and I express or nibbling, foraging and chasing each my gratitude to them. To my colleagues, other in a playful manner. The tiny Drs. P. K. Ghosh, C. G. Kumbkarni, rodent fascinated me so much that when K. G. Purohit, B. D. Rana, B. S. Gaur, I joined a UNESCO Project to study A. P. Jain, R. Advani, R. P. Mathur, the ecology of Indian desert mammal,>, Saroj Kumari and B. K. Soni, whose and later at CAZRI, it naturally receiv­ works have also been summarised in this ed the lions share of my own and my monograph, I am grateful for their colleagues' attention. In the course of wonderful collaboration. Dr. A. M. K. time, our research interest in this rodent Mohana Rao, Shri S. P. Goyal and Shri has only deepened as newer knowledge Devendra Bhardwaj assisted me in this on desert survival itself could be gene­ compilation and my special thanks are rated from a study of this animal. A due to them. The Cartography Section number of research papers emanating of CAZRI and Shri A. K. Sen were al­ from these studies have appeared in va­ ways found ready for making the draw­ rious journals describing ecological, be­ ings for this monograph. The manu­ havioural, physiological, toxicological script was carefully typed by Shri T. S. and control aspects. It may not sound Viswanathan. I am grateful to all of them. prudish, but it is a fact that my prolong­ Thanks are also due to editors of Journal ed interest has raised the status of the of Bombay Natural History Society for Indian desert gerbil, Meriones hurrianae, permitting me to reproduce excerpts to that of the most studied mammal of from our papers published III the the Indian sub-continent, i.e. besides Journal. man. However, I am aware that a good deal more about this 'most-studied' rodent Dr. H. S. Mann, Director, CAZRI, awaits to be known, and we are making supported the entire project morally, iii IV financially, and by providing all the faci­ friend indeed, was with me to provide lities. Dr. Polak Ghosh, Head of the Divi­ moral strength which was needed at sion of Animal Studies, CAZRI, my times. I am deeply indebted to them. 7 July 1981 ISHWAR PRAKASH Coordinating & Monitoring Centre for Rodent Research and Training, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur. In IItUIlUalON The mammalian fauna of India is kash, 1975; Barnett and Prakash, 1975; better known than that of several Afro- Reichman et ai., 1979). The present mo­ \ Asian countries. At the dawn of the pre- nograph is an attempt to coil ate and com­ sent century an immense volume of mate­ pre the results of work carried out on rial poured out of the pens of sta:warts of the eeo-physiological aspect of Meriones Indian mamma~ogy like W.T. Blanford, hurrionae by the author during the last T. C. Jerdon, R. C. Wroughton, 27 years, along with those of his co]]~a­ O. Thomas, followed by R. I. Pccock~ gues, and the information available in a S. H. Prater and J. R. Ellerman. The scattered way in numerous scientific pe­ Bombay Natural History Society did a riodicals on the most abundant and de­ great service by conducting mammal sur­ struc'ive mammal of the Indian desert, veys of the Indian sub-continent. Unfortu­ M eriones hurrianae (J erdon) . nately, however, neither the survey teams visited the Ra:asthan desert nor its fauna The Study Area was studied during the golden period of Indian mammalogy. The author had, The Rajasthan desert, which has been however, the privi:ege of initiating re­ the venue of our studies since 1952, is a search work on the desert vertebrates land lccked tropical desert situated on under the auspices of a UNESCO Pro­ the eastern most fringe of the Saharo­ ject (1952-56) with the able guidance of Rajasthanian belt. Its eastern boundary Prof. Daya Krishna. Later, in 1959, the coincides with the Aravan ranges which Central Arid Zone Research Institute continue into wooded land further to it. created opportunities for studies on the Archaeo'ogically, this desert is not very fauna of the Indian arid zone by organis­ o'd as its age is estimated to be 5,000- ing a section on Animal Ecology. As a 10,000 years (Krishnan, 1952; Wadia, result, several monographic works on the 1960), though contradictory views have vertebrates of Rajasthan desert have ap­ been expressed by various authors on its peared (Fitzwater and Prakash, 1966. age (Ahmed, 1969). 1974, 1978; Prakash, 1957, 1959, 1974, Rajasthan desert, occupying about 60 1975, 1977; Prakash et al., 1971a; Pra­ per cent of the total Indian arid region, kash and Ghosh, 1975; Gupta and Pra- res between 25° and 30° North Lati- I 2 tudes and 69.5° and 76° East longitudes. crop fields. Where irrigation facilities The rainfall. as characteristic of desert is are available the land is put to agricultu­ low and erratic. Ninety per cent of it ral use regularly, otherwise the land is fans during the monsoon season, from kept fallow ranging from 2 to 3 years to Ju~y to September. It varies from 80 mm regain soil fertility. The gravel plains are to 425 mm per annum (Range during usually situated on the foothills save in 50 years). During the period of study laisalmer district where vast gravel plains ( 1968-69) the rainfall varied from 9 to occur even without the presence of hi Is 200 mm at various localities in the Raja­ in the near vicinity. This type of habits sthan desert. Heat during the summer is does not, however, occur in all the dis­ intense. The average monthly minimum tricts. Rocky outcrops occur throughout and maximum temperatures available for the region but are notable in Sirohi, seme stations are recorded in Table 1 Jalore, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jhunjhunu Re~ative humidity is minimum during the districts where the studies were conduct­ hot season, while it is maximum during ed. These rocks are a mixture of rhyolite the monsoon; April and August are re­ and sedimentary sandstone. The crevices corded as the months with lowest and and shallow caves on the hills and Eup­ highest humidity respectively (Pramanik horbia caducifolia clumps on the hilly and Hariharan, 1952). The mean vapour s!opes form the ideal habitats for rodents. pressure values are lowest during the cold Village settlements are scattered through­ season and maximum during monsoon out the desert on almost all the landforms season. depending upon the availability of water. This complex situation, the ruderal ha­ The habitats have been classified into bitat, was studied in all the districts. Al­ sandy, gravel, rocky and ruderal foHow­ most all of these areas are rainfed and ing Prakash (1962-64). The sandy hab­ irrigated crops are situated very near itat covers vast stretches of loose sand the human dwellings.
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