Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2016 | 8(5): 8820–8823 N ote Occurrence of Ratel Mellfvora A badger fn Bannerghatta: an capensfs fs supplemented by a few opportunfstfc record of the Ratel dfsjuncfve ecologfcal evfdences of Mellfvora capensfs (Schreber, 1776 ) fndfvfduals from dfferent parts of ISSN 0974-7907 (Onlfne) (Mammalfa: Carnfvora: Mustelfdae) ISSN 0974-7893 (Prfnt) the world fndfcafng a poorly known from Karnataka, Indfa dfstrfbufon status. Though the OPEN ACCESS global populafon trend of R atels Avfnash Krfshnan 1 , Sunfl Panwar 2 , Aaranya Gayathrf 3 , remafns unknown, the specfes fs Sagarfka Phalke 4 & Dflfp Abanf Venkateshafah 5 lfsted as Least Concern due to fts wfde range of dfstrfbufon, although 1,3,4,5 A Rocha Indfa, #13, Kasserguppe vfllage, Bflwardahallf, they are consfdered to be rare and occur at low densffes Bannerghata Post, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560083, Indfa 2 Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bannerghata Nafonal Park, fn most parts (Begg et al. 2008) the threats to localfzed Karnataka Forest Department, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560083, Indfa populafon have occurred globally. 1
[email protected] (correspondfng author), 2 3 Wfthfn the boundarfes of Indfa, some sources
[email protected],
[email protected] , 4
[email protected], 5
[email protected] have ascertafned the presence of Ratels fn western and central Indfa (Prater 1971; Gupta et al. 2012) whfch fncludes states of Madhya Pradesh (Brander 1991), Gujarat and Rajasthan (Sharma 2013) and fn Sanctuary of Karnataka vfz.: Halagur, Hanur, Kaudallf and eastern Indfa the state of Odfsha (ORA 2011). A study Malaf Mahadeshwara Hflls Ranges. We present here the fn western Indfa also reported an average densfty of frst contemporary record of a Ratel whfch was camera 5.48 ±4.33 anfmals/100 km 2 fn summer and 6.43 ±2.79 trapped fn the protected area of Bannerghata Nafonal anfmals/100 km 2 fn wfnter fn Sarfska Tfger Reserve Park durfng the course of other research.