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Photographic Evidence of Desert Cat Felis Silvestris Ornata and Caracal

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Photographic Evidence of Desert Cat Felis Silvestris Ornata and Caracal [VOLUME 5 I ISSUE 4 I OCT. – DEC. 2018] e ISSN 2348 –1269, Print ISSN 2349-5138 http://ijrar.com/ Cosmos Impact Factor 4.236 Photographic evidence of Desert cat Felis silvestris ornata and Caracal Felis caracal using camera traps in human dominated forests of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India Raju Lal Gurjar* & Anil Kumar Chhangani Department of Environmental Science, Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner- 334001 (Rajasthan) *Email: [email protected] Received: July 04, 2018 Accepted: August 22, 2018 ABSTRACT We recorded movement of Desert cat Felis silvestris ornata and Caracal Felis caracal using camera traps in human dominated corridors from Ranthambhore National Park to Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary, Western India. We obtained 9 caracal captures and one Desert cat capture in 360 camera trap nights. Our findings revels that presence of both cat species outside park in corridors was associated with functionality of corridor as well as availability of prey. Further the forest patches, ravines and undulating terrain supports dispersal of small mammals too. Desert cat and Caracals were more active late at night and during crepuscular hours. There was a difference in their activity between dusk and dawn. Since this is its kind of observation beyond parks regime we genuinely argue for conservation of corridors and its protection leads us to conserve both large as well as small cats in the region. Keywords: Desert Cat, Caracal, Camera Trap, Ranthambhore National Park, Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary INTRODUCTION India has 11 species of small cats besides the charismatic big cats like tiger Panthera tigris, leopard Panthera pardus, Snow leopard Panthera uncia and Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica. Among all these cats North West Indian parks (Ranthambhore National Park, Ramgarh-Vishdhari Wildlife Sanctuary, Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve and Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary) accommodates 7 species of cats including Tiger Panthera tigris and leopard Panthera pardus (Menon, 2003 and 2014; Prater, 2005; Sadhu, 2013; Mukherjee, 2004; Singh, 2014). These cats are Rusty spotted Prionailurus rubiginosus, Fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus, Jungle cat Felis chaus, Desert cat Felis silvestris ornate, Caracal Felis caracalis, Tiger and leopard. However two species among these cats i.e. Desert cat Felis silvestris ornate and Caracal Felis caracal are facing severe threat due to habitat loss and fragmentation, while Rusty spotted cat and Desert cat also facing challenges due to hybridisation due to increasing number of domestic cats around Parks. The Desert cat Felis silvestris ornate Gray, 1830 is one of the five subspecies of the globally widespread Wildcat Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777 (Driscoll et al. 2007). In India it is distributed in the deserts of north- western India extending into the drier parts of central India and to near Poona in the Deccan). West-ward the range extends through desert lands from Sind to northern Africa. Northwards into the steppes of central Asia (Menon, 2003 and 2014; Prater, 2005). Carcal distributed in Baluchistan, Sind and Cutch. Said to be common in the north and north-west hills of Cutch. Also found in the drier parts of the Punjab, Rajasthan, Utter Pradesh, and central India. Outside our limits its range extends westwards into Iran, Iraq, and Arabia, and over the greater part of Africa (Menon, 2003 and 2014; Prater 2005). Both the species the Desert cat and Caracal are considered as least concern in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. However the status of Desert cat is not clear due to its cryptic behaviour and hybridization with domestic cats. There are anecdotal information on its status, behaviour and ecology. Caracal is listed as least Concern as the species is measured to be extensive in Africa. However, it may is nearby to categorise as Near Threatened as the caracal is declining in many areas in Asia. Further this mysterious carnivore is the least studied felid (Brodie, 2009) and has been placed in the Least Concern (LC) category of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2016). India is the south-eastern border of the Desert cat’s range and its occurrence is reported from the drier areas of the west and central India. While caracal in India is thought to have a sporadic distribution, populations are declining and it is probably even on the verge of extinction. In India, the caracal is locally endangered and is listed as a Schedule I species by the Indian Wildlife Act of 1972 and included in Appendix I of CITES. The Desert cat is legally Protected under Schedule-I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) of India and also included in CITES Appendix II. In North western parks of India like Ranthambhore and Sariska it is been photographed frequently by tourists. Research Paper IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 461 [ VOLUME 5 I ISSUE 4 I OCT.– DEC. 2018] E ISSN 2348 –1269, PRINT ISSN 2349-5138 MATERIALS AND METHODS Study area: The study area is in Ranthabhore National Park and Kailadevi wildlife sanctuary. Ranthambhore National Park is located between latitude 25041 N- 26022 N and longitude of 76016 E- 77014 E and Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary is northern extension of Ranthambhore national park and spread over in 670 km2 within the latitude 260 02N-260 21 N and longitude 76037 E- 770 13 E. Both protected areas are in semi-arid part of Rajasthan. Terrain is undulating to hilly in nature and has numerous narrow valleys. The climate of this tract is subtropical, characterized by a distinct summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter. The vegetation of Ranthambhore National park and Kailadevi wildlife sanctuary is under Northern tropical dry deciduous forests and Northern tropical thorn forest (Champion and Seth, 1968). Apart from tiger and leopard, other carnivores present are striped hyena Hyaena hyaena, jackal Canis aureus, jungle cat Felis chaus, common mongoose Herpestes edwardsi, small Indian mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus, ruddy mongoose Herpestes smithi, palm civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, small Indian civet Viverricula indica and honey badger Mellivora capensis. Prey species are in the area include chital Axis axis, sambar Rusa unicolor, nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus, common langur Seminopithecus entellus, wild pig Sus scrofa, rhesus macaque Macaca mulatta, porcupine Hystrix indica, rufous tailed hare Lepus nigricollis ruficaudatus and Indian peafowl Pavo cristatus. The predominant domestic livestock found inside the study are buffaloes Bubalis bubalis, brahminy cattle Bos indicus, goats Capra hircus and sheep Ovis aries. Figure 1: Desert cat and Caracal captured in camera traps locations in the study area Methods: We identified camera traps locations by pugmarks, tracks, scat, scraps, rake mark, scent deposits and kills by small and large carnivores. Potential Global Positioning System points of camera trap stations were then mapped using ArcGIS 9.3 (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) and further plotted on Ranthambhore map. We used digital camera traps of Cuddeback Professional Color model no. 1347. The camera delay was set at a minimum of five second and photo quality was set at 20 mega pixel. Cameras were tied up on trees if at the knee height perpendicular to the expected direction of animal movement. Cameras were deployed along the roads, trails, waterholes and stream beds. We setup two camera traps from 25-08-2016 to 21-02-2017 (180 Days). Total camera nights were 360 (180 Days X 2 Camera Traps). We identified all captured animals in camera traps by book “A Field Guide to Indian Mammals (Menon, 2003, 2014)”, we identified Desert cat and Caracal by this book. RESULT AND DISCUSSION We obtained 9 caracal captures and one Desert cat capture in 360 camera trap nights. We report here the records with photographs of the Desert cat and Caracal from two different areas of North West India (Fig. 1). The habitat structure in corridor is mainly formed by scrub forests, ravines and agriculture fields. There are 462 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews Research Paper [VOLUME 5 I ISSUE 4 I OCT. – DEC. 2018] e ISSN 2348 –1269, Print ISSN 2349-5138 http://ijrar.com/ Cosmos Impact Factor 4.236 some blocks with anogeisus pendula, prosopis and acacia. Both the species were camera trapped outside protected area in corridors. Caracal was reported earlier from Ranthambhore national park however its distribution is quite far to its northern extension which is sparsely reported. The Desert cat has been reported from Sariska Tiger Reserve but there is anecdotal information on record of the same from Ranthambhore complex. The photographic evidence indicates that both species are fairly distributed outside protected area and using natural corridors for dispersal. Hence conservation such passages for small mammals equally helps us to conserve and secure corridors for large carnivores like Tiger and Leopard. Singh (2014) is confined the caracal in two protected areas (Sariska Tiger Reserve and Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve) in the Rajasthan of Western Indian state. While The Desert cat is fairly distributed in western India (Menon, 2003; Prater, 2005), it has been reported from western and central Rajasthan (Sharma et al., 2003; Chhangani et al., 2008, Chhangani & Mohan, 2010; Hall and Chhangani, 2015) including the Thar Desert (Dookia, 2007), Saurashtra (Singh, 1998) and northern Gujarat (Gajera & Dharaiya, 2011). Kankane (2000) reported the presence of the Desert cat east of the Aravalli Hills near Jhalawar, Rajasthan. Gupta et al. (2009) reported the presence of the Desert cat in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan. Earlier it was reported from Pench Tiger Reserve (Gogate, 1997; Mukherjee, 1998) and Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra (Gogate, 1997). Aroad kill of the species was also found near Semadoh, Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra (Gogate, 1997). Pardeshi et al. (2010) confirmed the presence of the species in the Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary located in the western most part of the Kachchh Desert, Gujarat. In Madhya Pradesh, Yoganand (1999) recorded this species from Panna National Park, while the eastern most sighting has been reported from Bagdara Wildlife Sanctuary (Shekhar Kolipaka, 2011 pers.
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