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A Checklist of Mammals with Historical Records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya Landscape, India

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A Checklist of Mammals with Historical Records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya Landscape, India PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS 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, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) 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) Communication A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape, India Thangsuanlian Naulak & Sunita Pradhan 26 August 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 11 | Pages: 16434–16459 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6062.12.11.16434-16459 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16434–16459 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6062.12.11.16434-16459 #6062 | Received 29 April 2020 | Final received 16 July 2020 | Finally accepted 05 August 2020 C o m m A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim u n i Himalaya landscape, India c a 1 2 t Thangsuanlian Naulak & Sunita Pradhan i o 1,2 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Regional Ofce Eastern Himalaya-Northeast India, NH 10 Tadong, n Above Renault Showroom, Gangtok, Sikkim 737101, India. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: A region-specifc species checklist is an important resource for biodiversity documentaton and conservaton. This review provides an updated mammal species checklist for the biodiversity hotspots of the Darjeeling-Sikkim landscape in Eastern Himalaya. The list was compiled by systematcally reviewing 94 available publicatons spanning 178 years from 1841 to 2019, for mammals from the region. The species checklist is envisioned to aid in understanding the current status of mammal records, historical distributon, ranked conservaton status of mammals, and research gaps. A total of 173 mammal species under 11 orders and 33 families, including the recently upgraded taxon, Sikkim Pika Ochotona sikimaria was enlisted. There are 25 species included in the IUCN threatened categories, 58 species listed in the CITES Appendices, and 112 species included in the schedules of the Wildlife (Protecton) Act, 1972 in India. Although mammals receive the maximum research atenton in the landscape, small mammals and bats have rarely been subjected to systematc studies in recent years. Keywords: Biodiversity hotspot, Eastern Himalaya, research trends, updated checklist Nepali सार: क्षेत्र विशेषको हिसाबले प्रजातिको सूची जैवविविधताको संरक्षण र दस्तावेजीकरणका लागि महत्त्वपूर्ण संसाधन हुन्छ। यस समीक्षामा पूर्वी हिमालय अन्तर्गत दार्जीलिङ-सिक्किम परिक्षेत्रको जैवविविधता केन्द्रमा पाइने स्तनधारी प्राणीहरूको ताजा सूची उपलब्ध गराइएको छ। यो सूची, यस भेकमा पाइने स्तनधारी प्राणीहरूका लागि सन् 1841 देखि 2019 सम्म 178 वर्षको अवधिमा प्रकाशित 94 वटा लेख अनि प्रकाशनको योजनाबद्ध तरिकाले समीक्षापछि तयार पारिएको हो। यो सूची, ती स्तनधारी प्राणीहरूको वर्तमान स्थिति, पूर्वमा यसका थात-थलो अर्थात् ती प्राणीहरू पाइने इलाका, ती स्तनधारीहरूको संरक्षण स्थिति तथा शोधकार्यको सन्दर्भमा देखिएका अन्तर वा कमीबारे बुझ्नका लागि तयार पारिएको हो। हालै मात्र सूचीबद्ध गरिएको लिँडे मुसा (Sikkim Pika Ochotona sikimaria) सहित 11 प्रजाति तथा 33 परिवार अन्तर्गत कूल 173 वटा स्तनधारी प्राणी सूचीबद्ध गरिएका छन्। यसमा आइयुसीएनको सङ्कटग्रस्त सूचीमा सामेल 25 वटा प्रजाति, सीआइटीईएसको परिशिष्टमा सूचीबद्ध 58 वटा प्रजाति तथा भारतीय वन्यप्राणी (संरक्षण) ऐन, 1972 को अनुसूचीमा सामेल 112 वटा प्रजातिका स्तनधारी प्राणी छन्। कुनै परिक्षेत्रमा स्तनधारी प्राणीमाथि धेरै शोध कार्य गर्ने गरिए तापनि, हालका वर्षहरूमा स-साना स्तनधारी प्राणी लगायत चमेराहरूमाथि धेरै कम प्रणालीबद्ध अध्ययन गरिएका छन्। Editor: C. Srinivasulu, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Naulak, T. & S. Pradhan (2020). A checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(11): 16434–16459. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6062.12.11.16434-16459 Copyright: © Naulak & Pradhan 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Funding agency is Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change, Government of India under Natonal Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) (Project ID. NMHS/2017-18/MG17/01) Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Sunita Pradhan (SP) is a Visitng Fellow at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE). SP is currently based at the Regional Ofce-Eastern Himalayas in Gangtok. Thangsuanlian Naulak (TN) is a Senior Research Fellow and works under the supervision of SP studying mammals in the socio-ecological producton landscapes in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas. Author contributon: SP conceptualized, collected data, analyzed and prepared manuscript. TN collected data, analyzed and prepared manuscript. Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Natonal Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS), and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India for funding this project. We thank our team members Dr. Sarala Khaling, Vikram Pradhan, Aditya Pradhan, Rohit George, Dr. Bhoj Acharya, and Dr. Basundhara Chetri for their support. We are also thankful to Upasana Rai from Darjeeling Himalayan Zoo for facilitatng access to archived literature from Darjeeling Zoo and Darjeeling Government College, Darjeeling. 16434 J TT Checklist of mammals with historical records from Darjeeling-Sikkim Naulak & Pradhan INTRODUCTION al. (2004), 91 by Chatopadhya et al. (2006), and 125 by Chakraborty (2011). Similarly, from Darjeeling, A region-specifc species checklist that summarises Agrawal et al. (1992) listed 128 mammals, Pradhan & and documents the current status is an important Bhujel (2000) recorded 128 mammals, Mitra (2004) resource for biodiversity documentaton and documented 180 mammals, and Sanyal et al. (2007) conservaton (Nameer et al. 2015). Mammals form recorded 126 mammals. All these compilatons do not a signifcant taxon, ofen considered for monitoring take into account the recent changes in taxonomy, such because of their vulnerability to huntng and sensitvity as Sikkim Pika Ochotona sikimaria from Sikkim (Dahal et to human actvity (Robinson & Bodmer 1999). In a review al. 2017), which was recently upgraded from subspecies of biodiversity research trends in Eastern Himalaya, to species. The latest species enumeraton in Sikkim Kandel et al. (2016) showed that mammals were the enlists 125 mammal species (Chakraborty 2011), 126 most studied taxa in the region. Mammals have been in Darjeeling, including Kalimpong (Sanyal et al. 2007) documented in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya in the form and a separate list for Kalimpong stands at 99 species of anecdotal accounts, collecton records, compiled (Mallick 2012). reports, laboratory-based studies on pathogens found in This necessitated a methodological literature wild animals, feld surveys, and ecological works (Blyth review of mammal species recorded so far to compile 1841, 1863; Hodgson 1847; Anderson 1881; Blanford a species list of mammals recorded in the landscape. 1888; Sclater 1891; Dalgilesh 1906; Shebbeare 1914; The reviewed species list is envisioned as a precursor to Thomas 1915, 1916a,b, 1920; Elwes 1916; Millard et al. initate systematc documentaton of mammals in the 1916a, 1916b; Primrose 1916; Wroughton 1916a,b,c, Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape. The reviewed 1917; Hinton 1918; Fry 1923; Baldry 1932; Sanborn species list aims to aid in understanding the current 1932; Wood 1933; Mathews 1934; Pinckney 1939; Gabb status of mammal records, their distributon and ranked 1945; Maclaren 1949; Dut-Mazumdar 1955; Saha 1955; conservaton status, and paterns emerging from these Ellerman 1961; Hill 1963, 1986; Ellerman & Morrison- records, along with other knowledge gaps in the region. Scot 1966; Gurung & Agarwal 1969; Chaterjee et al. The compiled species list would also be a reference 1970, 2018; Khajuria & Ghose 1970; Topál 1970; Pal for systematc feld surveys to establish new detecton & Dasgupta 1982, 1984; Bandyopadhyay & Dasgupta localites, distributon range, and catalogue any new 1984a,b; Dey et al. 1984; Ghose 1984; Das 1986, 2003; species records. The completeness of any inventory Hill et al. 1986; Dasgupta 1987, 1991; Agrawal et al. from such feld surveys could also be compared against 1992; Saha et al. 1992; Pradhan 1995; Banerjee et al. this generated species list. 1996; Ganguli-Lachungpa 1997; Avasthe & Jha 1999; Biswas et al. 1999; Agrawal 2000; Molur et al.
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