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CAT
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N 58 | SPRING 2013
01
CATnews is the newsletter of the Cat Specialist Group, Editors: Christine & Urs Breitenmoser
a component of the Species Survival Commission SSC of the Co-chairs IUCN/SSC
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is pub- Cat Specialist Group
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the Cat Group. Switzerland
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Guidelines for authors are available at www.catsg.org/catnews Javier Pereira
CATnews is produced with financial assistance from Friends of Cover Photo: First photographic evidence
the Cat Group. of a Pallass cat in Bhutan. The animal
was captured in Jigme Dorji National
Design: barbara surber, werksdesign gmbh Park on 17.11.2012
Layout: Christine Breitenmoser Photo: Jigme Dorji National Park
Print: Stmpfli Publikationen AG, Bern, Switzerland
ISSN 1027-2992 IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group
The designation of the geographical entities in this publication, and the representation of the material, do not imply the expression of any
opinion whatsoever on the part of the IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or its authorities, or concerning
the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
RIDDHIKA KALLE1*, THARMALINGAM RAMESH1, QAMAR QURESHI1 AND ricultural and settlement areas while it is
KALYANASUNDARAM SANKAR1 unlikely to be present in evergreen forests
in Mudumalai Tiger
ecology of Indias small carnivores is scarce
bringing an urgent need for a focused re-
a) b)
Fig. 1 a). Locations of camera-trap stations in three habitats for capturing small carnivores in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (2010 and
2011). b) Zones of human activity influence around villages in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
ter courses, and swamps. An ongoing study Table 1. Independent photocaptures of three small felids in different habitats of
on small mammal trapping revealed high Mudumalai Tiger Reserve 2010 and 2011 during the dry and wet season. - = no pictures.
densities of white-tailed wood rat Cremno- Deciduous Deciduous Dry thorn Dry thorn Semi-evergreen
mys blanfordi, spiny mouse Mus platythrix, Year
dry wet dry wet dry
house rat Rattus rattus rattus and little In-
dian field mouse Mus booduga. Other small Trapping effort 750 750 780 780 630
mammals present are black-naped hare Jungle cat
Lepus nigricollis, three-striped squirrel Fu- 2010 1 - 26 11 -
nambulus palmarum, lesser bandicoot rat 2011 - 2 14 17 1
Bandicota bengalensis, Indian gerbil Tatera Leopard cat
indica, highland shrew Suncus montanus, 2010 1 1 - - -
Bonhotes mouse Mus famulus, house mou- 2011 - 3 - - 1
se Mus musculus and common Metad Mil- Rusty-spotted cat
lardia meltada, indicat-ing the availability 2010 1 1 1 - -
of sufficient prey base for the persistence 2011 - 1 4 3 -
of small felids. Threats to this area include
enormous biotic pres-sure (cattle grazing,
cultivations, settlements, collection of fuel sampled for 30 days. Cameras were appro- 2010 and 2011 and 1,530 trap-nights for
wood, non-timber forest products, etc.) ximately 25 cm above the ground and set to wet season in 2010 and 2011 (Table 1).
exerted by the ever-expanding human popu- be active for 24 h/day. No bait or lure was
lation (Fig. 1b). used at any location to attract animals. The Jungle cat
photo-capture delay was set to 1 min and Overall jungle cats were detected in 25%
Field sampling sensitivity was set to high. Sampling sta- of camera stations (SOM Table 2). The sex
The camera-trap surveys were designed to tions were checked on an average, every 3 ratio male (M):female (F) estimated was
photo-capture terrestrial small carnivores. days to ensure continued operation and the 1:1.5 in 2010 and 1:1.2 in 2011 (Fig. 3). Alt-
We selected 114 km2 of intensive study batteries and film were replaced when ne- hough no cubs or sub-adults were camera-
area which was divided into three intensive cessary. Sex was identified from the robust- trapped, we had a direct observation of a
sampling zones; deciduous (35 km2), semi- ness of the head region and observation of mother with two kittens. It was in the year
evergreen (40 km2) and dry thorn forest genital features. 2011, on a sunny afternoon we were scan-
33
(39km2) to conduct camera-trap surveys ning the forest during sign surveys. It was
for two years (2010 and 2011). Camera-trap Results 1:30 h when an adult female jungle cat ap-
survey was conducted in the dry and wet Our survey yielded 89 photographs of small peared from a trail, glanced at us, trotted in
season in deciduous and dry thorn forest cats of which 72 were of jungle cat, 6 le- our direction and later vanished into a trail
while the semi-evergreen forest could be opard cat, and 11 rusty-spotted cat. The beside us. Just a few seconds later two of
sampled only in the dry season due to lo- survey produced a total effort of 7,380 trap- her kittens emerged from the same trail. On
gistic constrains and inaccessibility in the nights; 2,160 trap-nights for dry season in sensing our presence, they could not follow
wet season. We divided the survey area
into 1km2 grids and systematically chose
grids for camera locations based on preli-
minary sign surveys. We selected the most
suitable camera locations (along trails,
forest roads, near stream beds and water
holes) which were likely to trap small cats
based on preliminary sign surveys of their
tracks, scats (SOM Fig. 2a,b), carcasses, in-
terviews of local people and park guards.
Within a grid, we deployed passive-infrared
camera-traps Deer-cam DC300 (DeerCam,
Park Falls, USA) and Stealthcam (Bedford,
Texas, USA) along suitable sites. Each sta-
tion had a pair of independently operating
cameras which were mounted opposite to
each other to obtain pictures of both flanks.
The mean inter-camera trap distance was
1.31 km. Every year we set up 25 camera-
trap stations in the deciduous forest, 21 in
the semi-evergreen forest and 25 in the dry
thorn forest. Each of the forest types were Fig. 2. Tropical dry forest in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Photo R. Kalle).
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank the Director and
Dean, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the
Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu for granting
research permission in Mudumalai as a part of
the project, A study on sympatric carnivores in
Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Financial support for
the research was provided by Wildlife Institute
of India. We wish to thank the editors and two Fig. 6. Heavy livestock grazing along the Moyar valley in the Moyar Range of the Tiger
anonymous reviewers for their constructive com- Reserve (Photo R. Kalle).
ments which helped us improve the manuscript.
We thank our field assistants C. James, M. Kumara H. N. & Singh M. 2007. Small carnivores Rajaratnam R., Sunquist M., Rajaratnam L. &
Kethan, M. Mathan and the forest department of Karnataka: distribution and sight records. Ambu L. 2007. Diet and habitat selection
officials for their assistance during field work. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Soci- of the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis
ety 104,155-162. borneoensis) in an agricultural landscape in
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1
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SOM Fig 1a. Tropical dry deciduous forest in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Photo R. Kalle).
SOM Fig 1b. Tropical moist deciduous forest in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Photo R. Kalle).
SOM Fig 1c. Tropical semi-evergreen
forest in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve
(Photo R. Kalle).
SOM Fig. 2b. Scat of a small felid recorded during sign surveys (Photo R. Kalle).
SOM Fig. 3. Swamps are converted to paddy fields (locally called vayal) by the Moundadan Chetties, a tribal
community from the Kapur Village in the Tiger Reserve (Photo R. Kalle).
SOM Table 2. Locations of camera-trap stations with records of small felids in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve for 2010 and 2011.
Camera No. Latitude Longitude Jungle Leopard Rusty-spotted Site type Remarks
(N) (E) cat cat cat
1 113513.8 763753 4 Forest road 2 km from Masinagudi village
2 113529.3 763911.9 6 Trail