Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis in Odisha, eastern India: a biogeographically significant record
Anup K. NAYAK1, Manoj V. NAIR2 and Pratyush P. MOHAPATRA3
Abstract
The occurrence of Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis camera-trapping. This record extends the earlier known distribution range of this species, from southern and central Western in the Similipal Hills, Odisha, India, has been confirmed by
KeywordsGhats in southwest: camera-trap, India, extension far to the of north known of therange, Eastern locality Ghats record, and northernmosthence constitutes occurrence, a biogeographically Similipal significant record.
Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis, the largest mongoose in Asia, is found in southwest India and Sri Lanka (Mudappa 2013). In India, its stronghold is believed to be the forested Western Ghats (Pocock 1941, Prater 1971, Corbet & Hill 1992, Van Rompaey & Jayakumar 2003, Mudappa 2013, Menon 2014). However, there is a report well outside the range of other records, from Horsley Konda (tentative loca- tion: 13°39′N, 78°25′E; perhaps about 750 m asl) in the East- ern Ghats (Allen 1911). As a sight-record without specimen, Allen (1911) himself expected, in keeping with the norms of
Thus, it was not mentioned even in Pocock’s (1941) compre- hensivethe time, review. that his Van observation Rompaey would& Jayakumar be taken (2003) as unconfirmed. considered Allen’s record doubtful on grounds of habitat. Much further northeast, the species was reported by Mishra et al. (1996) from the state of Orissa (now called Odisha). They consid- ered it restricted in the state to Similipal forest of Mayurbhanj district and Bhitarkanika mangroves of Kendrapara district. A later review of Orissa’s small carnivores, Acharjyo (1999), doubted these reports given that specimens were not ob- tained. Nor has the species found a place in the check-lists of Similipal Tiger Reserve (Anon. 1999). Hence, as of now, it is
2013, IUCN 2014, Menon 2014). thought to be confined in India to the Western Ghats (Mudappa Mongoose occurrence in Similipal Tiger Reserve (Simili- pal TR),Six recordsOdisha, (Tableeastern 1, India. Fig. 1) The now Similipal confirm Hills Stripe-necked (21°56′N, 86°00′E), in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, border the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal and harbour within their limits both a tiger reserve (of 2,750 km² ) and a biosphere reserve (of Fig. 1. Locality records of Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis in 5,569 km²). The terrain is undulating at 300–1,200 m asl. Forest Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, India.
71 Small Carnivore Conservation, Vol. 51: 71–73, December 2014 Nayak et al.
Table 1. Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis records in Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, India. Locality1 Range2 Date, time Coordinates; altitude (m); habitat3 Nigirdha Nawana (N) Not noted 21°53′34.0″N, 86°26′14.7″E; 828; MDDSF Dhudurchampa Nawana (S) Not noted 21°51′28.03″N, 86°26′02.26″E; 844; MDDSF Hatisal Chhak* Jenabil 5 Feb 2012, 13h17 21°42′38.58″N, 86°24′37.47″E; 781; MDDSF Jamuna Chhak* Jenabil 21 Oct 2013, 07h10 21°42′49.27″N, 86°20′14.95″E; 907; MDDSF Tarinibilla UBK 21 Jan 2007, 08h14 21°40′51.7″N, 86°20′58.8″E; 980; DSEF Upper Barakamura UBK 20 Apr 2008, 13h44 21°39′09″N, 86°18′40.6″E; 900; DSEF 1Camera-trap records are asterisked (*); the others are direct sightings. 2UBK = Upper Barakamura range. 3Coordinates and altitudes were obtained from Garmin 72 Handheld GPS units under the datum WGS 84. MDDSF = moist-deciduous dense Sal forest; DSEF = dense Semi-evergreen forest. ranges from dry deciduous and moist deciduous to semi-ev- During mammal observations in Similipal TR between ergreen. Some consider Similipal as part of the Eastern Ghats 2006 and 2009, MVN twice saw large mongooses in the Upper (Sinha 1971), while others treat it as the southeastern exten- - sion of the Chota Nagpur plateau (Ray 2005). The area falls inibila road, and a distant sighting of a duo walking along the under the province of Chhotanagpur in the Deccan Peninsula forestBarakamura trail at range: Upper a Barakamura. fleeting glimpse These of wereone crossing then thought the Tar to biogeographic zone of Rodgers & Panwar (1988). be exceptionally large Ruddy Mongooses H. smithii, primarily because of their black-tipped tails. With hindsight, the animals were H. vitticollis. The existence of H. vitticollis by two images taken during extensive camera-trapping in Si- milipal TR during 2012 and 2013, at Jamuna and was Hatisal confirmed (Figs 2–3). The photographs were incidental outcomes of camera- trapping primarily to estimate Tiger Panthera tigris numbers. No baits or lures were used. Most camera-traps were placed along main forest roads, while a few were placed on subsidi- ary feeder roads, stream courses and along existing animal trails. The records were in moist deciduous forest and semi- evergreen forest patches where human disturbance is mini- mal (Fig. 1). Most of the direct sightings were during daylight near hill streams or while the animals crossed forest roads. Other small carnivores occurring in Similipal TR are Ratel Mellivora capensis, Indian Grey Mongoose Herpestes edward- sii, Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus, Common Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, Small Indian Civet Viverricula indica and Asian Small-clawed Otter Aonyx cinere- Fig. 2. Herpestes vitticollis Stripe-necked Mongoose , Hatisal Chhak, us (pers. obs.). Jenabil Range, Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, India, 5 February 2012. These Stripe-necked Mongoose records from Similipal TR suggest that systematic surveys in and near the Eastern Ghats
support to Allen’s (1911) sight-record from Horsley Konda also inmight the findEastern this Ghats,mongoose albeit elsewhere 8° of latitude in the south hill range. of Similipal They lend TR. Of the two known subspecies, the camera-trapped individuals resemble, as would be expected, the paler northern subspecies H. v. inornatus, not the darker richly coloured southern sub- species H. v. vitticollis. Similipal TR lies over seven degrees of latitude (almost 800 km) north of the northernmost historical specimen record of the species (and 1,400 km in direct north- east line): from Chipageri (then, Chipgeri), Karnataka, in the Western Ghats at about 14°49′N, 74°55′E; Pocock 1941, Van Rompaey & Jayakumar 2003) and over 4° north of the recent records in west-central Maharashtra (Punjabi et al. 2014). These Stripe-necked Mongoose records echo recent extensions of known range such as for Asian Small-clawed Otter (Mohapa- tra et al. 2014), where species earlier thought to be disjunct in or endemic to the Western Ghats are discovered in the Eastern Fig. 3. Stripe-necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis from Jamuna Chhak, Ghats and parts of Deccan plateau. Hence this report is note- Jenabil Range Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, India, 21 October 2013. worthy in terms of a biogeographic perspective.
Small Carnivore Conservation, Vol. 51, December 2014 72 Stripe-necked Mongoose in Odisha, India
Acknowledgements in Johnsingh, A. J. T. & Manjrekar, N. (eds) Mammals of South Asia, 1. Universities Press, Hyderabad, India. Reserve for their support. They are also thankful to Divya Mudappa for Pocock, R. I. 1941. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and herThe encouragementauthors express and their inputs gratitude during to thethe preparationfield staff of of Similipal this paper. Tiger Burma. Mammalia, 2nd edn, 2. Taylor & Francis, London, U.K. Prater, S. H. 1971. The book of Indian animals, 3rd edn. Bombay Natu- References ral History Society and Oxford University Press, Bombay, India. Acharjyo, L. N. 1999. Status of mustelids, viverrids and herpestids Punjabi, G. A., Borker, A. S., Mhetar, F., Joshi, D., Kulkarni, R., Alave, S. of Orissa. ENVIS Bulletin: Wildlife and Protected Areas 2(2): K. & Rao, M. K. 2014. Recent records of Stripe-necked Mongoose 62–64. Herpestes vitticollis and Asian Small-clawed Otter Aonyx cinereus Allen, P. R. 1911. Mongooses in the Eastern Ghats. Journal of the Bom- from the north Western Ghats, India. Small Carnivore Conserva- bay Natural History Society 21: 237–238. tion 51: 51–55. Anon. 1999. Checklist of animals: Similipal Tiger Reserve and Similipal Ray, G. C. 2005. Geography of Orissa. Kitab Mahal, Cuttack, India. Biosphere Reserve (based on compilation by S. S. Srivastava and Rodgers, W. A. & Panwar, H. S. 1988. Planning a wildlife protected area L. A. K. Singh). Similipal Tiger Reserve, Baripada, India. network in India. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. IUCN 2014. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. Sinha, B. N. 1971. Geography of Orissa. National Book Trust, New
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