Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day Butterflies of Baghmara Buffer Zone Community Forest Checklist of serpents in Institute of Forestry, Hetauda Campus Complex

Mammals of Bhimsen Thapa Rural Municipality Distribution of Sikkim Caecilian in Nepal

First Record of King Cobra from Okhaldhunga and Sankhuwasabha districts

Predation of Common Tree by Ornate Flying 2 Editorial

The world is not the same as when we first called for articles for this issue. The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Inside this issue the recently discovered novel strain of coronavirus formally known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), has forced many countries into a complete 3 Synchronised counts of vultures to celebrate lockdown affecting every aspect of life. While most of us International Vulture Awareness Day in Nepal might be working from home and keeping ourselves K.P. Bhusal and D.B. Rana isolated, some are fighting this pandemic in the frontline. 7 Butterflies of Baghmara Buffer Zone Community To them, we express our sincere gratitude. Forest, Chitwan, Nepal So far, the general consensus is that the virus originated from a wet market of Wuhan, Hubei Province, R. Sedhain, D.R. Thanet, S. Bhattarai, R.R. Subedi and T.B. Gurung China as a result of . However, this is not new as spillover viral and bacterial infections from wildlife have 16 Checklist of serpents in Institute of Forestry, been known to occur in the past too. Take for example Hetauda Campus Complex, Makwanpur, Nepal Ebola, MERS, SARS and HIV which were viral infections A. Pradhan, S. Bajagain and R. Sedhain transferred from wildlife to humans. Although these were 20 Mammals of Bhimsen Thapa Rural Municipality, all serious diseases, none had so grimly affected the world Gorkha in this way and in this scale. The world cannot ignore wildlife exploitation and A. Basnet, B.S. Bist and P. Ghimire trade anymore. Conservationists, scientists and health 24 Distribution of Sikkim Caecilian in Nepal workers from all around the globe are now pushing the world leaders and governments to ban wildlife trade K.B. Thapa and K.B. Shah completely and instantly. 28 First record of King Cobra from Okhaldhunga and This is a difficult time for everyone around the Sankhuwasabha districts, Eastern Nepal world. Even so, we cannot help see the silver lining. Air K. Devkota, B. KC and K.B. Shah pollution has dropped, global carbon emission is lower. Clips of wildlife invading cities are going viral. These all 31 Photos from the wild point to the possibilities of the future we can create. We C. Sherpa can tip the world to a better future that has clean air to 34 Predation of Common Tree Frog by Ornate Flying breathe, no climate worries and space for wildlife. Snake at Satchari National Park, At the end, we apologize for the delay. Being a small team of volunteers with full-time jobs has pushed our T. Ahmed, S. Hasan and H. Naher publication date once again. 36 Nature close to us We would like to thank the authors for their Saroj Khadka and Samundra Ghimerey articles and all the reviewers for their valuable time and expertise. Please practice social distancing, wash your hands DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed in the articles are and stay safe. The world needs you. those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the editorial board or Friends of Nature. Email: [email protected]

Editors FRONT COVER PHOTO Impeyan pheasant by Bidhan Adhikary Nepal CHUNGBA SHERPA Jeevan Rai Nepal Mohammad Abidur Rahman Bangladesh Yadav Ghimirey Nepal Impeyan pheasant, known as Danphe in Nepali, is

Advisor the national bird of Nepal. This individual was photographed at Phortse, Sagarmatha National Raju Acharya Nepal Park.

Designer Bidhan Adhikary Nepal

BACK COVER PHOTO Mt. Everest by CHUNGBA SHERPA

34 Field Notes Predation of Common Tree Frog by Ornate Flying Snake at Satchari National Park, Bangladesh

TANVIR AHMED1*, SABIT HASAN1, and HABIBON NAHER1

1Department of Zoology, Jagannath University, Dhaka 1100, Bangladesh *Email for correspondence: [email protected] The Ornate Flying Snake ornata Shaw, 1802 through the tree branches towards the nearby forest is one of the most spectacular because of its ability patch before disappearing from our sight. During this to glide through the air (Ingle 2010). It is widely observation, the prey didn’t produce any sound and the distributed in South and Southeast Asian countries snake’s head was hanging down with the prey in its however its global status hasn’t been evaluated (IUCN mouth (FIG. 2). The cause of the hanging was not clear. It Bangladesh 2015). There are three recognized subspecies: possibly helped in muscle contraction and extraction C. o. ornata Shaw, 1802 from southwest India, C. o. while swallowing. ornatissima Werner, 1925 in north and east India to including Bangladesh, and C. o. sinhala Deraniyagala, 1945 which is endemic to (Samson et al. 2015). Despite being categorized as Least Concern the species is not common in Bangladesh, however, it occurs in different habitat types including deciduous forests, mixed evergreen forests, mangroves and even homestead vegetations (IUCN Bangladesh 2015). The snake is diurnal in nature, predominantly arboreal and known to consume small vertebrates (IUCN Bangladesh 2015). Here we report an opportunistic observation of predation of a Common Tree Frog Polypedates leucomystax Gravenhorst, 1829 by C. ornata at Satchari National Park (24.1263°N, 91.4415°E) - a small mixed evergreen forest (243 hectares) under Sylhet Hills bio-ecological zone of north-east Bangladesh and a part of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. P. leucomystax is found in most Asian countries (Diesmos et al. 2004). In Bangladesh, it occurs from the coastal areas to the hilltops, inhabiting both primary and secondary forests, bushes, tree holes, homestead vegetations and human habitations (IUCN Bangladesh 2015). The frog is listed as ‘Least Concern’ both in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh 2015) and global scale

TANVIR AHMED (Diesmos et al. 2004). P. leucomystax is nocturnal in FIG. 1: C. ornata constricting P. leucomystax. nature and becomes active at dusk (IUCN Bangladesh 2015). However, P. leucomystax represents a complex of C. ornata feeds on small vertebrates including poorly known cryptic species and comprehensive , , small snakes, birds, , and small taxonomic revision is required (Diesmos et al. 2004). (Diesmos et al. 2004). P. leucomystax is found in all the On 1 October 2017 at 11h35, during non-human potential habitats of C. ornata in Bangladesh (following primate survey, an adult C. ornata was opportunistically IUCN Bangladesh 2015) and a similar observation of sighted predating on an adult P. leucomystax in a predation of P. leucomystax by C. ornata at Satchari bamboo-clump close to human settlement (FIG. 1). The National Park was reported by Babu et al. (2018). It can snake was hanging with its tail coiled around a bamboo be assumed that P. leucomystax is common in C. ornata branch about 6 m above the ground with its body twisted diet but poorly studied. C. ornata has been reported to around the frog to hold and immobilize it. The trunk of predate on fish in India (Melvinselvan and Nibedita 2016). the frog with its hind thighs was caught tightly through We recommend detailed studies on C. ornata diet which frequent constrictions of the snake’s body. At 11h53, with can be interesting considering its wide distribution and a little jerking motion the snake started swallowing the variation of habitats. frog from the head side and completed swallowing it at

12h29. Immediately after, the snake moved towards the adjoining Toon tree Toona ciliata and continued moving

© Friends of Nature, The Himalayan Naturalist, 3(1), 34-35 Predation of Common Tree Frog by Ornate Flying Snake at Satchari National Park, Bangladesh 35

during data collection. Finally, we acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for useful comments to improve the manuscript.

References Babu, M.Q., Shihan, T.R., Debbarma, R. and Debbarma, P. 2018. Chrysopelea ornata (Ornate Flying Snake) Diet. Herpetological Review 49, 544-545. Diesmos, A.C., Alcala, A., Brown, R., Afuang, L.E., Gee, G., Sukumaran, J., Yaakob, N., Ming, L., Chuaynkern, Y., Thirakhupt, K., Das, I., Iskandar, D., Mumpuni, Inger, R.F., Stuebing, R., Yambun, P. and Lakim, M. 2004. Polypedates leucomystax. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T58953A86477485. Ingle, M. 2010. First locality record of Chrysopelea ornata Shaw, 1802 from Kheonae Wildlife Sanctuary, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. Rap 10, 5-6. IUCN Bangladesh. 2015. Red List of Bangladesh Volume 4: and Amphibians. IUCN Bangladesh Country Office, Dhaka. 320 pp. Melvinselvan, G. and Nibedita, D. 2016. An observation on Fish Predation by Ornate Flying Snake, Chrysopelea ornata Shaw 1802 (Serpentes: ) from Southern Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Russian Journal of Herpetology 23, 311-314. Samson, A., Ramakrishnan, B., Santhosh, K.P, Renuka, S., Karthick, S., Chitheena A. and Ilakka. 2015. Occurrence of Golden tree snake in the Nilgiris. Newsletter of the Nilgiri Natural History Society 6.1, 5-6.

Biosketches

TANVIR AHMED has been studying threatened primates in

TANVIR AHMED Bangladesh since 2015. He is interested in ecological adaptation FIG. 2: C. ornata hanging by its tail during feeding. and population genetics of primates in anthropocentric landscapes. SABIT HASAN is a M.Sc. student of Wildlife and Biodiversity Acknowledgements Conservation at Department of Zoology, Jagannath University, Dhaka. He is interested in primate ecology and conservation. We acknowledge The Rufford Foundation, UK (ID 23975- HABIBON NAHER is an Assistant Professor at the Department of 1) and NST Fellowship of the Government of Bangladesh Zoology, Jagannath University, Dhaka. Her research interest for funding the studies on primates. IDEA WILD supported includes behavioral ecology, population ecology, population field equipment to 1st author. Bangladesh Forest genomics, wildlife and biodiversity conservation. Department facilitated the field work and gave research permission (No-22.01.0000.101.23.2017.1859). We thank Rasel Debbarma and Prasenjit Debbarma for helping

© Friends of Nature, The Himalayan Naturalist, 3(1), 34-35

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