A newsletter on the Natural History, Ecology and Conservation of the Agasthyamalai region, Western Ghats, India AGASTHYAAGASTHYA Volume 6 Issue 2 Untold Plant - Animal Interactions stor y Following the nectar Elusive fruit eaters Wait-a-While or I will Winged beauties Studying the unseen Fern Ball Northern star Event Report A S H O K A T R U S T F O R R E S E A R C H I N E C O L O G Y A N D T H E E N V I R O N M E N T Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment ‘Notes from the editor' Contents Conserving in pairs ‘Notes from the editor' 2 Untold story of white bracts of Organisms interact with other organisms in different ways. Sometimes they Mussaenda frondosa - The Sequel 3 compete, predate, get preyed upon, or even act as parasites. Some interactions between species can also be beneficial to either of them. Several species exerts Following the nectar 3 selective pressure on the other, so they evolve together. The biodiversity that is Elusive fruit eaters and sacred trees 4 commonly talked about is not number of species but also encompasses such interactions in nature. Given my formal training in engineering and economics I Wait-a-While or I will make you do so 4 cannot help but see various analogies in those of the socio-economic order. Winged beauties of KMTR's evergreen Various ethnicity and groups combine to form nations, orders and unions to forests 4 avoid being conquered which maybe an equivalent of intra and inter-specific interactions to avoid being predated. Also, resource driven conflicts has Studying the unseen world 5 improved human civilization, akin to niche-based competition aiding evolution Fern Ball at the Fern House 5 and natural selection. Any change in one component has serious implications for the other. In the natural world one can see many species that have co- The 'Northern star' of the forest 6 evolved. A reduction in seed dispersers like bats can influence the survival of Elaeocarpus tuberculatus in the long run. Thus, survival of one species is Tales from wilderness 6 heavily dependent on another. Studies on such plant animal interaction are Research Highlights 7 important not just to push the boundaries of knowledge but also to aid in conservation. For example, the understanding of interactions have driven a Event Report 7 policy shift whereby foci of conservation shifted from species to ecosystems viz. Snippets 8 PA and recent declaration of the entire Western Ghats across five states as a Heritage Site. Such policy level decisions not just aid in the conservation of one, Talks and Presentations 8 but many species. Upcoming Events 8 Many ecologists have studied plant-animal interactions in KMTR. This issue's special focus is on such observations in KMTR. Apart from the casual Publications 8 observations during field visits and a research article, there is an interesting article from a Ph.D. student’s experience in the forest. A report on the annual Cover page image: Quid pro quo Credit: Rajkamal Goswami festival inside KMTR marks the gradual shifting of roles and responsibilities to Flip of cover page image: Seeds of Elaeocarpus tuberculatus on local stakeholders which began last year. The voluntary reduction in polythene the forest floor Credit: Kalyan Varma bags brought inside the forest maybe a sign that ATREE's efforts in the Back cover: Biologically and culturally rich and diverse landscape of the Agasthyamalai Credit: R Ganesan landscape are paying off. Editorial Team - Allwin Jesudasan Editor: Allwin Jesudasan Associate Editor: Rajkamal Goswami Editorial Review: R Ganesan, T Ganesh, M Soubadra Devy Design: Kiran Salagame For feedback & suggestions please write to: [email protected], [email protected] Agasthya is available online at: http://atree.org/newsletters_archive#agasthya Agasthya is a medium to highlight ACCC-ATREE’s research and conservation activities Disclaimer Any and all opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of ATREE For private circulation only 2 Untold story of white bracts of Mussaenda frondosa -The Sequel Way back in 1990, inspired by Dan Janzen's tales of plant-animal interactions, Ganesh and I picked any system which appeared curious and started working on it in KMTR. One such was Mussaenda frondosa a straggler found along forest edges. It had striking orange tubular flowers and a white bract (a modified or specialized leaf especially one associated with a reproductive structure) to go along with it. Of course the question was why white bracts? What followed were tireless efforts of manipulative experiments of removing bracts and comparing with control plants. Yes! the bracts did play an important role in attracting the pollinators, ’the long tongued butterflies' like the birdwings. Back at the base, we very eagerly analyzed our data but after our R Ganesan literature review, we found out, to utter Mussaenda frondosa - Pollination in progress disappointment, that the bract story had just night safari rides. The Mussaenda looked dusk and dawn. I wound up the plant-animal been published in Biotropica. We shelved the adorned with the bracts and appeared like a interaction class by highlighting how critical it idea of publishing and the data now sits in our tree with Christmas balls in twilight. Then we is to publish when data is hot, or it would lie archives. Strangely enough, after two years unraveled the story with further experiments deep down in the cold storage. The course and a decade, when I asked the students of and recorded that the plant had one set of left me inspired to take up the old data and 'Plant-Animal Interactions Course' to review flowers which opened in the morning while use it as a sequel to the previous Biotropica that paper, I realized that there was an another set bloomed exclusively in the paper. Will there be one more story to unfinished story. In the earlier paper, the evening. The pollination system appeared to complete a trilogy? Well, maybe. But that's researchers did not connect the white bracts maximize fertilization using a suite of long for another course! to higher conspicuousness in crepuscular tongued visitors comprising Papilio light, which we realized during one of the butterflies and solitary bees during the day - M Soubadra Devy and the hummingbird hawkmoths during [email protected] Following the nectar In the evergreen forests of KMTR and in most and cold, allowing only the hardy Cullenia These small birds make this annual migration parts of Western Ghats, a little emerald jewel and occasionally the Syzygiums to flower; across the hills to track nectar which is flits tweeting between flowers on a typical thus making the sunbirds move to the fairly usually scant in the rugged mountains of warm sunny day looking for nectar. This is the productive foothills where the lush KMTR and is spatially and temporally spread. crimson-backed sunbird (Leptocoma vegetation, very similar to the evergreens In the process they have to compete with minima), aptly known as the small sunbird, as after the NE rains, and plenty of Helectres in their congeneric at the lower elevation and it is one the smallest birds known from India. flower keeps them busy for two months. the spider-hunters in the higher elevations The species is restricted to the evergreen Once the flowering gets over, which also apart from other nectar feeders like the forest and surrounding areas between 800- happens gradually up slope, the small Oriental white eye (Zosterops palpebrosus). 1300 m and seasonally occurs in different sunbirds move back up the hill to feed on Such movements are seen elsewhere in the habitats. In the high elevations it feeds on Ormosia and Palaquium flowers later in the Western Ghats wherever there is this nectar from the flowers of Loranthus and dry season. continuum of resources available across the Palaquium during late May and June. Once habitats on a temporally overlapping scale. If the monsoon sets in the evergreen such corridors of resources become forests, the birds move to the lower disjointed or fragmented, the birds moist deciduous forests along the then have to take the risk to cross eastern slopes where rain is just a inhospitable barriers which can affect drizzle invoking many species to their population. It's not just sunbirds; flower. But the most spectacular many bees, frugivores and even movement is in January when the .com elephants track resources across the blue and red flowers of Helectres rugged terrain which calls for isora is common along the eastern maintaining an un-fragmented slopes stretching from the scrub l a n d s c a p e f o r f r u g i v o r e s , forest at 80m to the moist deciduous .frozenforeternity nectarivores and others even within forest at 600m elevation. The small protected areas. sunbirds come all the way to the scrub forest during this time competing with the other two species of sunbirds for nectar. It's because the Santanu Banik, www - T Ganesh Crimson-backed sunbird feeding on Helectres isora wet evergreen forests are nectarless [email protected] 3 Elusive fruit eaters and sacred trees Frugivores and their role in structuring the species, and E. tuberculatus, dispersed forests have been the focus of my studies. by bats, were lesser in comparison. One of the most fascinating frugivore Another study in the same site has shown mammals in the forests of the that pollinators of this group also differed. Agasthyamalai range is the brown palm E. munronii flowers were pollinated by civet (Paradoxurus jerdoni), a night rider social bees, E.