68 Indian Birds Vol. 8 No. 3 (Publ. 22 April 2013)

Commensalism of Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus with Phayre’s langur Trachypithecus phayrei in the Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary, Tripura, India Doki Adimallaiah & M. Maranko

Adimallaiah, D., & Maranko, M., 2013. Commensalism of Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus with Phayre’s langur Trachypithecus phayrei in Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary, Tripura, India. Indian BIRDS 8 (3): 68–69. Doki Adimallaiah, A.V.C. College (Autonomous), Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu M. Maranko, Regional Deputy Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Western Region, Mumbai. Email: [email protected] Manuscript received on 10 July 2012.

Introduction Opportunistic observations were made in the morning (0600– Drongos are old-world tropical species belonging to the family 1100 hrs), and evening (1600–1800 hrs), as animal movements Dicruridae. They are medium-sized, glossy black in colour are high during those hours. Drongos were observed feeding on and insectivorous. Out of 24 drongo species, 17 have been insects that fell during the movement of Phayre’s langur. The documented associating with animal species ranging from ants percentage of capture rate (or success rate) was calculated by to large mammals (Bannerman 1939; Ali & Ripley 1987; Ganesh using the following formula. 1993; Veena & Lokesha 1993; Styring & Ickes 2001; Harsha et al. Capture rate (or Successive rate) = N/nX100 2007). These birds follow other animals to prey upon arthropods N=Number of times insect captured and small vertebrates flushed by the latter’s movements. In India, n=Number of attempts made to capture insect ten drongo species occur widely (Grimmett et al. 1998), with Results & discussion the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus being a Greater Racket-tailed Drongos foraged more actively during resident of the Himalayan foothills from Uttaranchal to Arunachal morning and evening as the langurs would also actively forage Pradesh extending to cover all of north-eastern India. It occurs in around the same time, plucking leaves and eating them while most of peninsular India east of Gujarat, and in the Andaman and moving from branch to branch. During such movements, Nicobar Islands. It is common in broadleaved and mixed bamboo insects found on leaves and branches would get disturbed and forests (Rasmussen & Anderton 2012). fall down, which the drongos captured in mid-air. At noon the Langurs are distinctly different from macaques (both members drongos would stop following the langur troops and disappear, as of Cercopithecidae), being larger in size and possessing distended the langurs reduced foraging and resorted to other activities like stomachs and very long tails. Phayre’s langur Trachypithecus grooming, and other social behaviour. phayrei is a diurnal animal and is predominantly arboreal—it The highest success rate was 89% (N=82) and lowest was seldom descends to the ground, preferring to navigate from 38% (N=100) (Mean 59.4). In most cases the success rate was tree to tree. It is a folivorous species that lives in mixed moist more than 50%. Seldom did the drongos fail to capture insects. deciduous forest, primary secondary moist evergreen forest, The birds perched either below the langurs or 2–4 m diametrically bamboo dominated areas and semi-evergreen forests. Phayre’s opposite them. There were no conflicts noted between Greater langur is found in Bangladesh, Burma, China, India, Thailand, Racket-tailed Drongos and Phayre’s langurs during the study. and Vietnam (Roonwal & Mohnot 1977; Stanford 1988; Gupta The only conflict noted, was once with the Large-billed Crow & Kumar 1994; Srivastava 1999). In India it is found only in the Corvus macrorhynchos. Greater Racket-tailed Drongos were also lower north-eastern states bordering Bangladesh (Menon 2003), observed to follow capped langur Trachypithecus pileatus and especially in Tripura, Mizoram, and Assam (Mukherjee 1982; the pig-tailed macaques Macaca nemestrina. But their highest Choudhury 1987; Srivastava 1999). association was with Phayre’s langurs. We observed that the feeding association of Greater Racket-tailed Drongos with the Phayre’s langurs was highest during leaf-fall in rubber plants, Methodology which shed their leaves rapidly during January–March. During This study was conducted between December 2009 and April these three months the Greater Racket-tailed Drongos were 2010 at Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) (23º37’–23º42’N, observed to associate with the langurs for foraging and benefit 91º17’–91º21’E; 18.53 km2), which was established in 1987 from the association. and falls under Bishalgarh civil subdivision of West Tripura district, about 20 km from Agartala. The vegetation here consists of moist Acknowledgements mixed deciduous, secondary moist bamboo, and sal, teak, and The first author would like to thank R. Deepak, Anukulnath, and Kamal Kanti Banik for rubber plantations. their help and support. Sepahijala WLS hosts several rubber plantations that play a role in the conservation of Phayre’s langur (Gupta 1997). Langur troops mostly feed and spend time in these plantations. The References feeding activity of Racket-tailed Drongos was observed using focal Ali, S., & Ripley, S. D., 1987. Compact handbook of the birds of India and Pakistan animal sampling (Altmann 1974) in this monoculture plantation. together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. 2nd ed. Delhi: Rahane & Bramhankar: Black-legged Kittiwake 69

Oxford University Press. Pp. i–xlii, 1 l., 1–737, 752 ll. Menon, V., 2003. A field guide to Indian mammals. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley. Pp. 201. Altmann, J., 1974. Observational study of behaviour: sampling methods. Behaviour 49: Molur, S., Jones, D. B., Dittus, W., Eudey, A., Kumar, A., Singh, M., Feroz, M. M., Chalise, 222–267. M., Priya, P., & Walker, W., 2003. Status of South Asian primates: conservation as- Bannerman, D. A., 1939. The birds of tropical West Africa: with special reference to sessment and management plan (C.A.M.P.) Workshop Report, 2003. Coimbatore: those of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. London: The Zoo Outreach Organisation /CBSG-South Asia. Pp. viii+432. Crown Agents for the Colonies. Mukherjee, R. P., 1982. Phayre’s leaf monkey (Presbytis phayrei Blyth, 1847) in Tripura. Choudhury, A., 1987. Notes on the distribution and conservation of Phayre’s leaf mon- J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 79: 47–56. key and Hoolock gibbon in India. Tigerpaper 14 (2): 2–6. Rasmussen, P. C., & Anderton, J. C., 2005. Birds of South Asia: the Ripley guide: attri- Deepak, R., Sivaperuman, C., & Raghunathan, C., 2011. Commensalism in Greater Rack- butes and status. 1st ed. Washington, D.C. and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution et-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus nicobariensis) with Long tailed Macaque and Lynx Edicions. Vol. 2 of 2 vols. Pp. 1–683 (592–593). (Macaca fascicularis umbrosa) in Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve. Abstracts: Roonwal, M. L., & Mohnot, S. M., 1977. Primates of South Asia: ecology, sociobiology, National Seminar on “Emerging Trends in Conservation Science”. AVC College, and behavior. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Mannampandal, Tamilnadu. Satischandra, S. H. K., Kudavidanage, E. P., Kotagama, S. W., & Goodale, E., 2007. The Ganesh, T., 1993. A silent association. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 89 (3): 374. benefits of joining mixed-species flocks for Greater Racket-tailed DrongosDicrurus Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 1998. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 1st ed. paradiseus. Forktail 23 (August): 145–148. London: Christopher Helm, A & C Black. Pp. 1–888. Srivastava, A., 1999. Primates of Northeast India. Bikaner, India: Megadiversity Press. Gupta, A. K., & Kumar, A., 1994. Feeding ecology and conservation of the Phayre’s Styring, A. R., & Ickes, K., 2001. Interactions between the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo leaf monkey (Presbytis phayrei) in Northeast India. Biological Conservation 69: Dicrurus paradiseus and woodpeckers in a lowland Malaysian rainforest. Forktail 301–306. 17: 119–120. Gupta, A. K., 1997. Importance of forestry plantations for conservation of Phayre’s Langur Veena, T., & Lokesha, R., 1993. Association of drongos with myna flocks. Are drongos (Trachypithecus phayrei) in north-east India. Tropical Biodiversity 4 (2): 187–195. benefitted? J. Biosciences (Bangalore) 18 (1): 111–120. First record of Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla from Maharashtra, India Chinmay Rahane & Siddhesh Bramhankar

Rahane, C., & Bramhankar, S., 2013. First record of Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla from Maharashtra, India. Indian BIRDS 8 (3): 69 55. Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla in Chinmay Rahane, M-4, Sankul Condominium, Erandwane, Pune 411004, Maharashtra, India. Email: [email protected] Akshi, Maharashtra. Siddhesh Bramhankar, c/o S. K. Wani, 4-Swapnasiddhi, Rane Nagar, Khudane Road, Nizampur, Taluka Sakri, Dhule 424305, Maharashtra, India. Email: [email protected]. Manuscript received on 13 January 2013.

he Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla is a gull (Laridae) Mark Newsome of the Kittiwake from 2005 in Goa. We found no found mainly in North America and Europe. It breeds other records from India, and to the best of our knowledge, this Talong coastlines or inlands in the North Pacific and Atlantic is the second record of the Black-legged Kittiwake from India and oceans, and is common near fishing ports and colonies near first from Maharashtra. the sea. It winters at sea, ranging across much of the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans (del Hoyo et al.1996; Svensson et Acknowledgements al.2009). Grimmett et al. describe it as a vagrant to the Indian Subcontinent. We would like to thank Adesh Shivkar and Saurabh Sawant for confirmation of identification. During a birding visit to the coast of Maharashtra on 24 November 2012, at Akshi in Alibag district, Maharashtra (18°36’8’’N, 72°53’53’’E), we spotted an odd looking gull [55], References standing alongside a group of Lesser Sand Plovers Charadrius AVIBASE: www.avibase.bsc-eoc.org mongolus and Greater Sand Plovers C. leschenaultii. It resembled Chatterjee, S., 2012. URL: http://orientalbirdimages.org/birdimages.php?action=bird a juvenile Gull-billed Tern Sterna nilotica at first sight. Unsure of species&Bird_ID=966&Bird_Image_ID=68197 Accessed on 30 November 2012. its identity we took a few photographs for later. The bird had a del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J., (eds.) 1996. Handbook of the birds of the world. prominent black collar, dark primaries, and a black band across Volume 3. Hoatzin to Auks. 1st ed. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. Vol. 3 of 16 vols: Pp. 1–821. median coverts, dark ear spot, dark legs and thin looking beak Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C., & Inskipp, T., 2011. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. 2nd ed. and different structure. A literature search (Grimmett et al. 2011; London: Oxford University Press & Christopher Helm. Pp. 1–528. Kazmierczak 2000) did not help in identification. Kazmierczak, K., 2000. A field guide to the birds of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, An online search on www.orientalbirdimages.org yielded a Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. 1st ed. New Delhi: Om Book Service. Pp. clue with the first image of the Black-legged Kittiwake by Sujan 1–352. Chatterjee, which he reported on 30 November 2012 from Newsome, M., 2005. URL: http://orientalbirdimages.org/photographers.php?p=2&actio Assam. I compared his image to ours and found great similarity. n=birderimages&Bird_Image_ID=10480&Birder_ID=388 Accessed on 30 Novem- Referring to Svensson et al. (2009) and Avibase, an online ber 2012. Svensson, L., Mullarney, K & Zetterstrӧm, D. 2009. Birds of Europe. Princeton University checklist database, we confirmed the species’ identity. Apart Press. from Chatterjee’s record, we found only one other image by