Thehimalayannaturalist Volume
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Editorial The launch of the first issue of The Himalayan Naturalist Inside this issue (THN) on May 2018 was highly appreciated by researchers and conservationists in Nepal and abroad. The overwhelming response from our readers was very 3 Diversity of butterflies in eastern lowlands of Nepal motivational and we would like to thank you all for your S. R. Tamang, A. Joshi, J. Pandey, N. Raut & B. R. support. Initially our consensus was to come up with the Shrestha next issue within December 2018 so we called for manuscript submission by mid-September. We were happy 11 Conservation value of upper Mai valley forest in Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung (PIT) corridor of Eastern to receive a large number of manuscripts. While we worked Nepal for birds hard to publish the new issue by our December deadline, some factors complicated the process. C. Inskipp, A. P. Sherpa, D. Bista, H. S. Baral, M. Bunskoek, H. Chaudhary & R. Chaudhary Sorting out manuscripts that didn’t fully comply with the author’s guidelines delayed the peer review 26 Distribution of King Cobra in Nepal process. Our team members were also preoccupied with K. B. Thapa, N. Rana & K. B. Shah their primary responsibilities thus creating further delays. 34 Confirmation of breeding colonies of Lesser Adjutant This pushed the publication date back by nearly three Stork in Sarlahi, Nepal months. For this, we offer our sincere apology. S. Bajagain, A. Pradhan & A. Bhusal Unfortunately, few of the manuscripts we received were not quite original and had to be rejected. 37 Status and distribution of King Cobra in Southern THN’s editorial board takes plagiarism seriously and do not Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal compromise in this regard. We would like to request our R. Baral, S. K. Yadav, R. Gautam, M. P. Katila, R. K. readers to help spread awareness about this serious issue in Gurung, A. Subedi & B. Basnet your circles and would like to request future authors to be 42 The largest recorded breeding colony of Great more cautious of maintaining originality. You can visit Cormorant in Nepal https://www.plagiarism.org/ to understand more about S. GC, R. Acharya & N. R. Chapagain plagiarism. 44 Conserving the Asian Woollyneck in Nepal: efforts, With that said, we are very excited to present the outcomes and lessons learnt second issue of The Himalayan Naturalist. There are nine P. Ghimire & N. Pandey articles in this issue including one original contribution, four short communications, two distribution updates, one 46 First record of Crab-eating Mongoose in Dang district, Western Nepal conservation bulletin and a field note, plus the section ‘Photos from the Wild’. The articles cover the taxonomic P. Pandeya & C. Khanal classes herpetofaunas, butterflies, birds and mammals. We 48 Photos from the wild would like to thank our reviewers for their invaluable help S. Giri and advice. 52 My first herpetological field trip We sincerely hope this issue will be useful and K. B. Shah enjoyable and we hope for your feedback and critical comments on how we can keep refining The Himalayan Naturalist. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed in the articles are those Thank you! of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the editorial board or Friends of Nature. Email: [email protected] FRONT COVER PHOTO Mountain Weasel by YADAV GHIMIREY Editors Mountain Weasel Mustela altaica is a small mustelid species Bidhan Adhikary Nepal Jeevan Rai Nepal found mostly in areas lying at high altitudes or cold places. Mohammad Abidur Rahman Bangladesh It lives in rock crevices, tree trunks and abandoned burrows. Yadav Ghimirey Nepal It hunts for pikas, hamsters and other rodents. Globally the species is found in Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Advisor Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation Raju Acharya Nepal and Tajikistan. In Nepal the species has been recorded from Humla, Mustang, Solukhumbu and Taplejung districts. This Layout and Design Bidhan Adhikary Nepal photo was taken in Takche area in Limi valley, upper Humla. BACK COVER PHOTO View towards north from Nyalu pass in Humla by YADAV GHIMIREY 3 Diversity of butterflies in eastern lowlands of Nepal SANJAYA RAJ TAMANG1,2*, AASTHA JOSHI3, JEEVNATH PANDEY1, NIRJALA RAUT1 and BIMAL RAJ SHRESTHA4 1 Institute of Forestry, Pokhara Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 2 Himali Conservation Forum, Taplejung, Nepal 3 Central Department of Environment Science, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 4 Amrit Science College, Kathmandu, Nepal *Email for correspondence: [email protected] Abstract A study of butterflies was conducted in Jhapa them an umbrella species for conservation (Fleishman et and Ilam districts of Nepal (100-300 m) in three different al. 2001; Betrus et al. 2005). seasons viz; Pre-monsoon, Monsoon and Post-monsoon, in This study aims to find the diversity of butterfly in three different land uses - Forest, Riverine fallow land and two areas in the lowlands of Eastern Nepal viz; Arjundhara Agricultural land. Purposive sampling followed by Pollard municipality of Jhapa district and Mai municipality of Ilam Walk was carried out for the data collection. A total of 985 district. It measures diversity in terms of seasons and individuals of 133 species of 90 genera belonging to all 6 different land use forms. The study will help provide families were recorded. Both species richness and baseline information and highlight butterfly diversity in abundance were highest during monsoon and lowest in this region. pre-monsoon period. The family, Nymphalidae represented the highest number of species followed by Study Area Lycaenidae. The overall Shannon-Weiner diversity index was 4.46. Similarly, the highest diversity was found in forest (H’ = 4.27) followed by agricultural land (H’ = 3.76). Keywords Abundance, butterfly, land use, richness, seasons ___________________________________________ Introduction Background Butterflies fall under Lepidoptera, the second largest Order of the Phylum Arthropoda. Of the 20,000 species documented in the world, 80% of the species are found in the tropical region. The Indian sub-continent covering major areas of the tropical zone, hosts about 1,504 species of butterflies (Nair et al. 2014). Nepal is home to 660 Palearctic and Oriental species (Smith 2011a). Their distribution varies according to physiographic zones with 51% in Terai and Siwalik zone, 88% in mid-hills and 13% in the highlands (BPN 1996 as cited by Bhusal and Khanal 2008). The distributional categories of butterflies of Nepal are also classified based on major watershed, namely Western species (Karnali basin), Central species (Gandaki basin) and Eastern species (Koshi basin) (Smith 1994). However, detailed and regular study focusing on species and habitat parameters like elevation, land use and habitat type has been lacking in Nepal. Butterflies have wide significant biological role in their ecosystem. They play an important part in pollination FIG. 1: Map of study area showing Mai and Arjundhara and food chain regulation. They also act as indicators for municipality. vegetative structure (Pollard 1991; Blair 1999), habitat The study area includes two municipalities from Province quality (Larsen 1998; Kocher and Williams 2000; Sawchik 1 of Nepal: Arjundhara (Jhapa district) and Mai (Ilam et al. 2005) and climate change (Parmesan et al. 1999). district) as shown in FIG. 1. They are located on the lower Variation in landscape due to alteration in land use region of Eastern Nepal and are associated with patterns leads to disparity in the butterfly diversity making ©2018 Friends of Nature, The Himalayan Naturalist, 2(1), 3-10 Butterflies in eastern lowlands of Nepal 4 Kanchanjunga Landscape of Eastern Himalaya. Three conducted between 07h00 to 13h00 in calm weather different land use types - Forest, Riverine fallow land & conditions (rain and cloudy days were avoided) to ensure Agricultural land, were included in the study which are maximum detection of butterflies. Direct field briefly described below. observations along with verifiable photographs were used to record species. Species were identified with the help of Forest ‘Butterflies of Nepal (Central Himalaya)’ (Smith 1994) and It includes Eastern Churia forests (100-300 m) at the base ‘Illustrated Checklists of Nepal’s Butterflies’ (Smith 2011b) of Siwalik hills. The assimilation of tropical species with and classified based on ‘Butterflies of India’ (Kehimkar sub-tropical species accounts for high plant diversity in this 2016). area. A notable association of Sal Shorea robusta (tropical Data analysis species) with Chilaune Schima wallichi (sub-tropical species) is a major feature of the region. The other major Species richness was determined based on the total tree species include Lagerstomia parvifolia, Cassia fistula, number of species observed in different land use types and Terminalia spp., etc. The study area covers two community season, and species abundance was based on the total forests namely - Sukhani Community Forest and Daltahar number of individuals observed in different land use types Community Forest. Grazing and land degradation were and season. minimal in this area. The data were pooled and analysed using MS Excel software. Shannon-Weiner diversity index was used Riverine fallow land to calculate the diversity which is given by: It includes fallow lands along river edges with clumps of Shannon-Weiner diversity index, bamboo species and dense undergrowth of Saccharum ∑푠 spp. Being associated with Riparian forest (100-200 m), the H’ =