OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication Distribution and population status of Sambar Rusa unicolor (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) from Aravalli landscape with a note on its first record from Aravalli Hills of Haryana, India Paridhi Jain, Anchal Bhasin, Gautam Talukdar & Bilal Habib 26 September 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 10 | Pages: 12357-12362 10.11609/jot.4011.10.10.12357-12362 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies and Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct visit htp://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints contact <[email protected]> Publisher & Host Partners Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12357–12362 Distribution and population status of Sambar Rusa unicolor (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) from Aravalli landscape with a note on its first record from Aravalli Hills of Haryana, India ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) Short Communication Short Paridhi Jain 1 , Anchal Bhasin 2 , Gautam Talukdar 3 & Bilal Habib 4 ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 1,2,3,4 Wildlife Insttute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Utrakhand 248001, India OPEN ACCESS 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: Sambar is the most widespread deer in Southeastern Asia Distributon in southeastern Asia and India and is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. In this communicaton, Rusa unicolor is natve to southern and southeastern we report the results of an extensive literature review and camera trapping to present the historic and current distributon of Sambar in Asia and its distributon extends to India (Menon 2009), Aravalli Mountain region. The records state that the species is nearly Sri Lanka (Eisenburg & Lockhart 1972), southern Nepal exterminated in the protected areas of Gujarat Aravalli and bordering areas of Rajasthan, although a sizable populaton stll survives in (Mishra 1982), Myanmar (Tun Yin 1967), southern China northern and central Aravalli (Pali-Rajasamand-Udaipur & Alwar-Sawai (Smith et al. 2010), Indonesia, Philippines (Prater 1971), Madhopur region). We also report the frst record of Sambar from the and the islands of Borneo, Taiwan, and Hainan (Hsu & Aravalli Hill region of Haryana. Agoramoorthy 1997). Its distributon, however, has Keywords: Aravalli, Sambar, distributon, populaton. decreased substantally and it is now rare in Malaysia (Timmins et al. 2015), Thailand (Ngampongsai 1987), Vietnam (Khun & Kan 1991), Bangladesh (Basbar et al. 2001), and Laos (Timmins & Evans 1996). Rusa unicolor was listed as Vulnerable in 2008 by Sambar has been reported from several protected IUCN due to rapid declines in several of its populatons areas of India and has been intensively studied in Sariska (Timmins et al. 2015). The Wildlife (Protecton) Act, 1972 (Chaterjee et al. 2014), Mundanthurai (Johnsingh & lists this species in Schedule III. The main reasons for its Sankar 1991), Rajaji Natonal Park (Bhatnagar 1991), declining populatons are atributed to habitat loss and Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (Goswamy 2011), Corbet poaching (Timmins et al. 2015). Natonal Park (Pant et al. 1999), Gir Natonal Park (Jhala et al. 2004), Periyar Tiger Reserve (Harikumar et al. 1999), Kanha Natonal Park (Porwal et al. 1996), Bandipur DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4011.10.10.12357-12362 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8E684695-D1EC-4DA2-9137-7CCBB36CBF4D Editor: Anwaruddin Choudhury, Rhino Foundaton for Nature in North-East India, Guwahat, India. Date of publicaton: 26 September 2018 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # 4011 | Received 14 January 2018 | Final received 05 September 2018 | Finally accepted 12 September 2018 Citaton: Jain, P., A. Bhasin, G. Talukdar & B. Habib (2018). Distributon and populaton status of Sambar Rusa unicolor (Mammalia: Cetartodactyla: Cervidae) from Aravalli landscape with a note on its frst record from Aravalli Hills of Haryana, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(10): 12357–12362; htps://doi.org/10.11609/ jot.4011.10.10.12357-12362 Copyright: © Jain et al. 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton. Funding: Haryana Forest Department, Research Insttuton: Wildlife Insttute of India. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: We are thankful to the Haryana Forest Department for providing fnancial assistance for the study and permits for surveys, camera trapping, and monitoring of the landscape. We acknowledge the administratve support of the forest department. We also thank Dr. Amrinder Kaur (PCCF), Sh. Rambir Singh (CF), Sh. M.D. Sinha (CF), Sh. R. Anand (DCF), Mrs. Renjitha MH (DCF), and all other people who helped and guided us during the study. We are deeply thankful to the Rajasthan Forest Department for providing census data and informaton. We thank Dr. Satsh Kumar Sharma and Rahul Bhatnagar for providing the required informaton. We also give our thanks to Sh. Raja Tehsin and Dr. Sunil Dubey for providing the necessary guidance. 12357 Sambar in Aravalli landscape Jain et al. Natonal Park (Johnsingh 1983), Nagarhole Natonal Park 51 sampling sites spread over fve forest divisions for a (Karanth & Sunquist 1992), and Pench Tiger Reserve period of four months (January–April 2016). Vegetaton (Biswas & Sankar 2002) in India. variables like foral diversity were also recorded to compare the habitat characteristcs of each site. Materials and Methods Opportunistc camera trapping was later conducted in Study area descripton October 2016 in two districts: Gurgaon and Faridabad. Aravallis extend from -Gujarat and Rajasthan in the To get basic insights into the presence of mammalian southwest and to Haryana and Delhi in the northeast. species in the region, 360 camera trap nights (12 cameras The study area selected was the Aravalli region of the for 30 days) were deployed. The sites selected to put Haryana landscape, which lies between 28.580N–27.650N cameras were Bhondsi (one), Gamroj (one), Manger & 75.910E–77.160E (Fig. 1). Haryana is bound by Aravalli (four), Bandhwari (two), Wazirabad (two), Gothda (one), in the south-west region. The northern point of the and Anagpur (one). range contnues as isolated hills and rocky ridges into There is currently no reliable and detailed informaton Haryana State, ending in Delhi. The famous Delhi Ridge is on the distributon of Sambar from the entre extent the last leg of the Aravalli range, which traverses through of Aravalli hill range. In the absence of such ecological southern Delhi and terminates in central Delhi where informaton, proper research and management is Raisina Hill is its last extension. Sites in fve divisions, difcult. Hence, to fll the informaton gap, records on namely, Mahendragarh, Rewari, Faridabad, Gurgaon, the distributon of Sambar in three states, Rajasthan, and Mewat, were extensively surveyed for mapping land Gujarat, and Haryana, were collected and compiled. No use area/ land cover patern and the status of key wildlife records of the natural populaton from Delhi NCR have species. been reported as of now. Though there are occasional records of Sambar sightngs and rescue operatons from Field data collecton Delhi NCR (Anonymous 2016), these do not confrm Sign surveys and line transects were conducted in the areas where they actually occur. Present numbers Figure 1. Map showing frst record of Sambar from Aravallis in Gurgaon District, Haryana 12358 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2018 | 10(10): 12357–12362 Sambar in Aravalli landscape Jain et al. and early records were collected from census records from districts Banaskantha (Ryley 1914), Sabarkantha of respectve forest departments, state gazeteers, and (Rajyagaor 1974), Panchmahal (Patel 1972), and Vadodra available publicatons. (Anonymous 1979). Descripton of Sambar from Jessore Wildlife Sanctuary in the faunal list has been described Results in a booklet released by Gujarat Forest Department First record of Sambar from Aravallis Haryana in (Anonymous 1984). Gurgaon District The Aravalli mountain range in Rajasthan is spread Images of Rusa unicolor on two consecutve days across districts Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Dungarpur, Jaipur, in October were recorded from Bhondsi Village in Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, Pali, Rajsamand, Sawai Madhopur, Sohna (Fig. 1 & Image 1). Bhondsi in Gurgaon District Sikar, Sirohi, Chitorgarh, Pratapgarh, Banswara, and has an extremely rich forest habitat which stll remains Udaipur (Fig. 2). This is the most studied region in ignored by conservatonists. Untl