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 Do Black-naped Hares Lepus nigricollis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha: Leporidae) have synanthropic association with wind farms?

V. Anoop, P.R. Arun & Rajah Jayapal

26 June 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 7 | Pages: 11925–11927 10.11609/jot.3411.10.7.11925-11927

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

Publisher & Host Partners Member

Threatened Taxa

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7): 11925–11927

Do Black-naped Hares Lepus nigricollis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha: Leporidae) have synanthropic association with wind farms? ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Short V. Anoop 1, P.R. Arun 2 & Rajah Jayapal 3 OPEN ACCESS 1,2,3 Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Moongilpallam, Anaikaty (PO), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected]

Abstract: Wind energy is an upcoming major source of clean energy. at a lesser magnitude than the non-renewable. The unprecedented proliferaton of wind farms across landscapes has The growth of wind energy sector in India has been raised concerns on the environmental impacts. Generally reported direct impacts of wind farms include collision of birds and bats with surpassing the planned additons in the respectve turbines, habitat alteratons, noise polluton from the turbines, fve-year plans. Among the Indian states, Gujarat, aesthetc impact on landscapes and displacement of faunal species. Here we report our preliminary results indicatng an apparent positve Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh associaton of Indian Hares Lepus nigricollis with a wind farm in have the maximum potental and installed capacites in a scrub forest area. This study was conducted at Harada Reserve wind sector. The unprecedented rate of expansion of Forest near Harapanahalli of Davangere District, Karnataka, India. The pellet count method was used for comparing the abundance of wind farms is also raising several concerns regarding the species between areas. The abundance of Indian Hares in wind their impacts on local biodiversity. Alteraton of an farm area was signifcantly higher than in the surrounding forest area ecosystem and subsequent disturbances will change without turbines. The factors that might be afectng this patern of preferental use of wind farm area by the Indian Hare are discussed the faunal compositon resultng in changes in local and the scope for further studies also highlighted. fauna. The shif in avifaunal territories due to roads, supportng structures and the actvites during their Keywords: Impact, Indian Hare, positve associaton, populaton, wind farms. operaton is of major concern for birds (Kuvlesky et al. 2007). The major reported impacts of wind farms are: (1) habitat destructon (Larsen & Madsen 2000; Larsen The traditonal non-renewable energy from fnite & Guillemate 2007), (2) impact on aerial/fying fauna, resources such as petroleum, coal and nuclear energy especially birds and bats (Nelson & Curry 1995; Howe et entailing high environmental impacts is unsustainable al. 2002; Barclay et al. 2007; Kunz et al. 2007; Bernardino in the long run and hence there is increasing global et al. 2013; Narwade et al. 2013), (3) noise polluton atenton towards renewable energy like solar and wind. (Rabin & Owings 2006), and (4) visual/aesthetc impacts While a renewable resource is a cleaner source of energy, on landscapes. Several studies have shown that certain it also has its own share of environmental impacts albeit faunal groups, especially raptors, tend to avoid the wind

DOI: htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3411.10.7.11925-11927

Editor: Mewa Singh, University of Mysore, Mysuru, India. Date of publicaton: 26 June 2018 (online & print)

Manuscript details: Ms # 3411 | Received 15 March 2017 | Final received 19 March 2018 | Finally accepted 29 May 2018

Citaton: Anoop, V., P.R. Arun & R. Jayapal (2018). Do Black-naped Hares Lepus nigricollis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha: Leporidae) have synanthropic associaton with wind farms? Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(7): 11925–11927; htp://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3411.10.7.11925-11927

Copyright: © Anoop 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: CLP wind farms (India) Ltd.

Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.

Acknowledgements: Authors are grateful to the funding agencies and The Director, SACON.

11925 Black-naped Hares and wind farms Anoop et al. farm sites (Arun et al. 2015). Though the installaton where, the only variable is the pellet count per of wind farms started in India in the early 80s, studies quadrat and other three are constant values. on impact of wind farms on wild species is scarce from Indian subcontnent (Pande et al. 2013; Arun et al. Results 2014, 2015). In the case of many species of raptors, In order to compare the sightng records in the two displacement from foraging sites has been reported sites, we used independent samples t test. Since the because of the establishment of windmills (Whitefeld data set did not follow normal distributon (Kolmogorov- & Coupar 2005); however, studies on the response of Smirnov value-0.00), we transformed the data to log mammals, other than bats, to wind farms are scarce. 10 which confrmed normal distributon (Kolmogorov- The Indian Hare Lepus nigricollis, also called Black- Smirnov value -0.190). During the study, the Indian naped hare, is a common species of hare in the Indian Hare was found to be using the wind farm areas more subcontnent, categorized as Least Concern by IUCN Red (3.34 individuals/ hectare) than non-turbine area (1.37 List of Threatened Species (Maheswaran et al. 2008). individuals/ hectare) (t (df=56)=2.93, P=0.005). The species is also introduced in many of the islands of Andamans by humans (IUCN 2016). Recent studies Discussion have shown that birds and mammals adapt to adjust The higher use of the wind turbine area than the with development through synurbizaton (process by surrounding non-turbine forest areas by the Indian which animals adjust to human made habitat changes Hare is quite interestng. The role of various possible (Luniak 2004). We examined whether the habitat use determinant variables that might have caused this of the Indian Hare in and around a wind farm shows diference was not examined during this study, however, any evidence of synanthropism (the propensity of an this result throws up a lot of new questons on the organism to associate with humans or altered habitats response of mammals to wind farm sites. Multple long ecologically). term studies only can confrm whether this observed patern is consistent in wind farm sites. A detailed Material and Methods investgaton is needed on this aspect to identfy the The study was conducted at Harada Reserve Forest factors which help the populaton of hares thrive in near Harapanahalli of Davangere District, Karnataka wind farm areas. The study from Portugal by Santos et from September 2014 to February 2015. The wind al. (2010) showed a decline of vertebrate populatons in farm study area is located within this reserve forest wind farm sites. The reasons for the decline included occupying a 56.5km2 area (between 14.75–14.880N & direct disturbances, structural habitat changes and 75.79–75.850E). The area is predominantly scrub forest, behavioural segregatons. The Mediterranean region is with major tree species being Anogeissus latfolia, known to be fre prone and the impact of wind farms Chioroxylons weitenia and Albizia amara. is an additonal threat to the biodiversity (Santos et We used the pellet count method to ascertain the al. 2010). Behavioural changes of California Ground presence of hare in this study. Four 500m transects were Squirrels Spermophilus beecheyi in terms of their ant- laid in the Harada forest reserve where two transects predator call in the presence of the background noise were within the wind farm and the other two were in the non-turbine areas of forest (Fig. 1). We put 16 quadrats of 5.08cm width and 3.04m length perpendicular to each transect approximately at 30m intervals (Krebs et al. 1987, 2001). The thin quadrats were sampled efectvely by two persons in each feld trip and the number of all fresh pellets of hare found inside the quadrats was recorded. The new and old pellets were distnguished based on their colour. Only yellow colour pellets were considered as new. The hare density in the study area was calculated from the pellet counts using the following equaton (Krebs 1989). Hare density / ha = 1.567*EXP((0.888962*(LN(mean no. of pellets per quadrat)))- 1.203391) Figure 1. Pellet count data

11926 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7): 11925–11927 Black-naped Hares and wind farms Anoop et al. from the wind turbines are also reported (Rabin & Kunz, T.H., E.B. Arnet, B.M. Cooper, W.P. Erickson, R.P. Larkin, T. Owings 2006; Kikuchi 2008). The role of predatory Mabee & J.M. Szewczak (2007). Assessing impacts of wind-energy development on nocturnally actve birds and bats: a guidance pressures, compettors and forest fre regimes will be document. Journal of Wildlife Management 71(8) : 2449–2486. worth looking into in future studies for understanding Krebs, C.J., B.S. Gilbert, S. Boutn & R. Boonstra (1987). Estmaton of snowshoe hare populaton density from turd transects. Canadian the dynamics of mammal populatons using wind farm Journal of Zoology 65: 565–567. area. Long term studies can provide more insights into Krebs, J.C., R. Boonstra, V. Nams, M.O. Donoghue, K.E. Hodges & S. the role of wind turbines and associated factors in the Boutn (2001). Estmatng snowshoe hare populaton density from pellet plot: A further evaluaton. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79: habitat selecton of such faunal species. The present 1–4. result indicate that apart from the well-known negatve Luniak, M. (2004). Synurbizato-adaptaton of Animal Wildlife to impacts of wind farms like mortality from collision of Urban Development. Proceedings 4th Internatonal Urban Wildlife symposium, 50–55pp. birds and bats with turbines, there are other ecological Larsen, J.K. & J. Madsen (2000). Efects of wind turbines and other phenomena like synanthropic associatons fostered physical elements on feld utlizaton by Pink-footed Geese (Anser among other faunal groups such as small mammals that brachyrhynchus): A landscape perspectve. Landscape Ecology 15(8): 755–764. need further scientfc atenton. Larsen, J.K. & M. Guillemate (2007). Efect of wind turbines on fight behaviour of wintering common eiders: implicatons for habitat use References and collision risk. Journal Applied Ecology 44: 516–522. Maheswaran, G. & M. Jordan (2008). Lepus nigricollis: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species:e.T41282A10432461. IUCN. Retrieved Arun, P.R., R. Jaypal & V. Anoop (2015). Impact of Hara wind power from htp://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41282/0 project of CLP wind farms (India) Ltd. on wildlife including migratory Nelson, H.K. & R.C. Curry (1995). Assessing avian interactons with birds and raptors at Harapanahalli, Davangere, Karnataka. SACON windplant development and operaton. Transacton of the North Technical report, SACON, 60pp. American Wildlife and Natural Resources conference 60: 266–287. Arun, P.R., M.S. Ali & S.R. Kumar (2014). Monitoring the Impacts of Narwade, S.S., P.A. Shaikh, M.V. Prabhu & A.R. Rahmani (2013). Jangi Wind Power Farm (91.8 MW) with Special Reference to Birds Review of existng global guidelines, policies, and methodologies for and Bats. Technical report, SACON, Coimbatore, 92pp. the study of impact of windmills on birds and bats: requirements in Bernardino, J., R. Bispo, H. Costa & M. Mascarenhas (2013). India. BUCEROS 18(1&2): 1– 48. Estmatng bird and bat fatality at wind farms: a practcal overview Pande, S., A. Padhye, P. Deshpande, A. Ponkshe, P. Pandit, A. of estmators, their assumptons and limitatons. New Zealand Pawashe & P. Deshpande (2013). Avian collision threat assessment Journal of Zoology 40(1): 63–74. at Bhambarwadi Wind Farm Plateau in northern Western Ghats, Barclay, R.M., R. Baerwald & J.C. Gruver (2007). Variaton in bat and India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(1): 3504–3515; htp://doi. bird fatalites at wind energy facilites: assessing the efects of rotor org/10.11609/JoTT.o3096.210 size and tower height. Canadian Journal of Zoology 85(3): 381–387. Rabin, L.A., R.G. Coss & D.H. Owings (2006). The efect of wind Howe, R.W., W. Evans & A.T. Wolf (2002). Efects of Wind Turbines on turbines on antpredator behaviour in California Ground Squirrels Birds and Bats in North Eastern Wisconsin. Wisconsin Public Service (Spermophilus beecheyi). Biological Conservaton 131: 410-420. Corporaton, Madison, Wisconsin, 104pp. Santos, M., R. Bastos, P. Travassos, R. Bessa, M. Repas, J. Alexandre Kikuchi, R. (2008). Adverse impacts of wind power generaton on & J.A. Cabral (2010). Predictng the trends of vertebrate species collision behaviour of birds and ant-predator behaviour of squirrels. richness as a response to wind farms installaton in mountain Journal for Nature Conservaton 16(1): 44–55. ecosystems of northwest Portugal. Ecological Indicators 10: 192– Kuvlesky, W.P., L.A. Brennan Jr., M.L. Morrison, K.K. Boydstone, B.M. 205. Ballard & F.C. Bryant (2007). Wind energy development and wildlife Whitield, D.P. & A. Coupar (2008). Efects of terrestrial wind farms conservaton: challenges and opportunites. Journal of Wildlife on birds and upland habitats, pp. 205–220. In: Galbraith, C.A. & Management 71: 2487–98. J.M. Baxter (eds.). Energy and the Natural Heritage. The Statonery Ofce, Edinburgh.

Threatened Taxa

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7): 11925–11927 11927 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.

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

June 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 7 | Pages: 11831–11998 Date of Publicaton: 26 June 2018 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2018.10.7.11831-11998

Artcle A frst report and additonal descripton of the assassin bug Neostaccia plebeja (Stål) (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) from India with comparatve Associaton of grassland birds with Saccharum-Imperata patch in a notes on Staccia diluta Stål from Assam, India northeastern tea estate of Bangladesh -- Balasaheb V. Sarode, Swapnil S. Boyane & Hemant. V. Ghate, Pp. 11948– -- Muntasir Akash, Tania Khan & Sayam U. Chowdhury, Pp. 11831–11843 11954

Communicatons First defnitve record of a whip scorpion Labochirus tauricornis (Pocock, 1900) from Goa, India: with notes on its morphometry and pedipalp Assessment on the impacts of human-tger confict and community-based micro-morphology conservaton in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India -- Manoj Ramakant Borkar, Pp. 11955–11962 -- Sandeep Chouksey & Somesh Singh, Pp. 11844–11849 Distributon and populaton status of Kingiodendron pinnatum Mapping the confict of raptor conservaton and recreatonal shootng in the (Angiosperms: Fabaceae) an endemic and endangered legume tree in Batumi Botleneck, Republic of Georgia southern Western Ghats, Kerala, India -- Anna Sándor & Brandon P. Anthony, Pp. 11850–11862 -- P.A. Jose, Siju Tom Kuruvila & N.M. Binoy, Pp. 11963–11968

Length-weight relatonship and conditon factor of Bangana dero (Hamilton, Polytrias indica (Poaceae: Andropogoneae): the name, species identty 1822) (Actnopterygii: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from northeastern region and its distributon in India of India -- Vatsavaya S. Raju & V. Sampath Kumar, Pp. 11969–11972 -- Kamlesh Kumar Yadav & Rani Dhanze, Pp. 11863–11868 Notes An annotated checklist of the birds of upper Chenab catchment, Jammu & Kashmir, India Fish fauna of Nandur-Madhmeshwar wetland, Maharashtra, India -- Neeraj Sharma, Suresh Kumar Rana, Pankaj Raina, Raja Amir & Muzafar -- Prashant Wagh, Sudhakar Kurhade, Shrikant Jadhav & Deepa Jaiswal, Ahmed Kichloo, Pp. 11869–11894 Pp. 11973–11979

Floristc enumeraton of Torna Fort (Western Ghats, India): a storehouse of Biology and distributon of the Clouded Apollo Parnassius mnemosyne endemic plants (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae), a rare buterfy in the -- Mayur D. Nandikar, Priyanka T. Giranje & Durga C. Jadhav, Pp. 11895–11915 Republic of Mordovia, Russia -- A.B. Ruchin, Pp. 11980–11983 Short Communicatons New Lycaenid buterfy records from Jammu & Kashmir, India Parasitological fndings and antparasitc treatment of captve Jaguarundis -- Shakha Sharma & Neeraj Sharma, Pp. 11984–11987 Herpailurus yagouaroundi (Carnivora: Felidae) in a conservaton center in Brazil First record of a trogid beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Trogidae) from -- Nárjara Veras Grossmann, Anderson Silva de Sousa, Rebecca Martns the Western Ghats, India Cardoso & Estevam Guilherme Lux Hoppe, Pp. 11916–11919 -- Aparna Sureshchandra Kalawate & S.S. Patole, Pp. 11988–11991

Pathological and immunohistochemical studies on hemangiosarcoma in Notes on the taxonomy and distributon of the Bengal Morning Glory tgers Panthera tgris and lions Panthera leo Ipomoea rubens Choisy (Convolvulaceae) in India -- N. Jayasree, Ch. Srilatha, N. Sailaja, R. Venu & W.L.N.V. Varaprasad, Pp. -- J. Swamy & Pragada Venkata Ramana, Pp. 11992–11994 11920–11924 Macrofungus Nitschkia macrospora Teng (Ascomycetes: Nitschkiaceae), a Do Black-naped Hares Lepus nigricollis (Mammalia: Lagomorpha: Leporidae) new report to India have synanthropic associaton with wind farms? -- K.J. Nandan Patel, M. Krishnappa & V. Krishna, Pp. 11995–11996 -- V. Anoop, P.R. Arun & Rajah Jayapal, Pp. 11925–11927 Miscellaneous A frst confrmed record of the Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica (Mammalia: Rodenta: Hystricidae) in the United Arab Emirates Natonal Biodiversity Authority -- Maral K. Chreiki, Mark D. Steer, Sami Ullah Majeed, Swamit Kakembo & Member Steve Ross, Pp. 11928–11933

A taxonomic study of six species of the genus Junonia Hübner, [1819] (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the northwestern Himalayan region in India -- Deepika Mehra, Jagbir Singh Kirt & Avtar Kaur Sidhu, Pp. 11934–11947 Publisher & Host

Partners

Threatened Taxa