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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Crowding, group size and population structure of the Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) in the semi-arid habitat of Haryana, India Deepak Rai & Jyot 26 July 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 9 | Pages: 14194-14203 DOI: 10.11609/jot.4788.11.9.14194-14203 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. Partner Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2019 | 11(9): 14194–14203 Crowding, group size and population structure Communication of the Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758) ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) in the ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) semi-arid habitat of Haryana, India PLATINUM 1 2 OPEN ACCESS Deepak Rai & Jyot 1,2 Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Thanesar, Kurukshetra, Haryana 136119, India. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Abstract: To understand the populaton growth dynamics and life history parameters of the Blackbuck, 24 fortnightly visits were made in and around Lalpur Jheel, Dobhi Village of district Hisar (Haryana) from March 2017 to February 2018. Scan sampling method was used to record the Blackbuck populaton. In the present study, a total of 68 sightngs of Blackbuck were made including a minimum of one sightng per visit to a maximum of seven sightngs per visit with group size varying from one individual to a maximum of 58 individuals per sightng. The overall mean group size and crowding of the Blackbuck populaton were 13.84 ± 1.89 S.E. and 31.31 (N=941 individuals), respectvely. The populaton structure of Blackbuck revealed six diferent age and sex classes, namely, adult male, adult female, sub-adult male, sub- adult female, yearling male, and fawn. As far as the social organizaton of the Blackbuck is concerned, six diferent types of social grouping were recorded, namely lone territorial male (adult male), unimale-unifemale (adult male and adult female), bachelor herd (adult male(s)/ sub-adult male(s)/ yearling male(s)), mixed herd (adult male(s)/ sub-adult male(s)/ yearling male(s)/ adult female(s)/ sub-adult female(s)/ fawn(s)), harem herd (1 adult male/ adult female(s)/ sub-adult female(s)/ fawn(s)), and female herd (adult female(s)/ sub-adult female(s)/ fawn(s)). It was concluded that Blackbuck shows partal social organizaton as both the solitary and herd were observed during the present study. Keywords: Antelope, growth dynamics, Hisar District, Lalpur Jheel, life history parameters, social organizaton, ungulates. DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4788.11.9.14194-14203 Editor: L.A.K. Singh, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Date of publicaton: 26 July 2019 (online & print) Manuscript details: #4788 | Received 09 January 2019 | Final received 31 May 2019 | Finally accepted 20 June 2019 Citaton: Rai, D. & Jyot (2019). Crowding, group size and populaton structure of the Blackbuck Antlope cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mammalia: Cetartodactyla: Bovidae) in the semi-arid habitat of Haryana, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14194–14203. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4788.11.9.14194-14203 Copyright: © Rai & Jyot 2019. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Dr Deepak Rai is an Assistant Professor in Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. His feld of research includes ornithology, animal ecology and wildlife conservaton. Ms Jyoti is a research scholar and pursuing her PhD from Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. Author contributon: Deepak Rai and Jyot conceived and designed the study. Jyot collected the feld data and prepare rough draf of the manuscript. Deepak Rai guided the research, analyzed the data and wrote the fnal draf of the manuscript. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, for providing necessary facilites to successfully carry out this research work. We are thankful to the UGC for providing a Junior Research Fellowship during the research period. 14194 Blackbuck in the semi-arid habitat of Haryana Rai & Jyot INTRODUCTION a medium-sized antelope, the only representatve of the sub-family Antlopinae and the genus Antlope (Prater Grouping behaviour in antelopes is largely 1971). The word antelope is used to describe a number accompanied by predaton pressure, but the maximum of species of the family Bovidae, but the scientfc name group size is limited through dispersion and availability of Antlope is restricted only to the Blackbuck (Ranjitsinh food resources in a partcular area (Jarman 1974). Group 1989). It is known as ‘Kala Hiran’ or ‘Krishna Mriga’ in size in ungulates also depends on habitat structure as it Hindi due to its distnctve dark brown or black coloraton increases with habitat openness such as on grasslands in sharp contrast to white for which the species is named and decreases with dense vegetaton as in scrubby (Mungall 1978; Ranjitsinh 1989; Jhala 1992). Currently, forest area (Lagory 1986). In this context a group can be Blackbuck is categorized as Least Concern (IUCN SSC defned as the numbers of individuals usually present less Antelope Specialist Group 2017), which was previously than 10m apart and behaving in a coordinated fashion categorized as Near Threatened (Mallon 2008). Despite when frst observed (Mungall 1978). As we consider the the overall habitat loss, the conservaton status of group size, it refers to the sum of number of individuals Blackbuck has improved probably due to unintentonal belonging to diferent age classes and having an integer creaton of more suitable habitat, i.e., open habitat by value n=1 (Ramesh et al. 2012a). convertng dense scrub land and woodland to agricultural Considering normal distributon of a species, area (IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group 2017). On the researchers mostly deal with calculatng mean group size other hand, farmers are regularly complaining about of a populaton in most of the ecological studies. Due to their crop damage due to crop raiding by Blackbuck changing climatc conditons, however, nowadays normal and for this, they are using various protectve measures distributon is converted into clumped distributon to prevent their crops which may ultmately lead to especially in birds and mammals (Reiczigel et al. 2008). changes in the normal ecology of Blackbuck. So, the To overcome these problems, initally Jarman (1974) study of ecology and behaviour of Blackbuck is becoming described a new phenomenon termed as ‘typical group important in such areas where a signifcant number size’ that refects the group size as experienced by an of Blackbucks are commonly seen by inhabitants and average individual, which was later named as ‘crowding’ farmers of the villages (Rai & Jyot 2018). by Recizigel et al. (2008). Crowding can be defned as the A number of studies have been conducted on group size as experienced by an individual in a partcular diferent ecological and behavioural aspects of Blackbuck group because average individuals come from a group in India (Gupta & Bhardwaj 1990; Gehlot & Jakher 2007, larger than the mean group size of a populaton (Recizigel 2011; Kumar & Rahamani 2008; Vats & Bhardwaj 2009a, et al. 2008; Ramesh et al. 2012b). b; Mahato et al. 2010; Dookia et al. 2011; Sharma & Under demographic changes over tme, age structure Sharma 2013; Gangotri & Gangotri 2014; Baskaran et is an important parameter to understand the populaton al. 2016; Prashanth et al. 2016; Debata 2017; Sagar & dynamics and various life history parameters (Caughly Antony 2017; Meena & Chourasia 2018) and also in 1977; Stearns 1992). Along with this, data regarding Khairapur, Bardia District, Nepal (Bhata 2008; Khanal the sex rato of a populaton refects the reproductve & Chalise 2010). Among these, most of the studies potental of a species (Ramesh et al. 2012b). In were conducted in protected areas of India and fewer ecosystems, antelopes