Browsing by Author "Jayapal, R."

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A Study on Bird Communities-Habitat Structure Relationships in Pench National Park, M.P.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1997) Jayapal, R.; Qureshi, Qamar
There has been a number of studies on bird communities and their relationships with habitat features of floristics and physiognomy. In particular, the spatial distribution of bird communities along the axis of structural variables of a habitat has received a wider attention in the light of recent findings on landscape behaviour. Most of these works relate to either temperate or neotropical forests and our knowledge of community dynamics of tropical deciduous forests is very limited, for there has been hardly any comprehensive study in the tropics. The present study was done in the deciduous forests of the Pench National Park, Central India (M.P) between "November, 1996 and April, 1997 covering winter (November,1996-1anuary,1997) and summer (March, 1997-April, 1997). Seven distinct habitat types were identified for the study based on floristic and structural diversity. Seasonal data on 27 habitat structural variables were collected from bird-centered sampling plots. Point count census technique was employed to study the bird population. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the patterns of inter-relationships among the habitat structural variables. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was done to understand the relationships of habitat components to the distribution of bird communities. For guild analysis, two different sets criteria were used to identify the guilds among the bird populations viz., food type and foraging behaviour. Twelve guilds were recognized based on the food type and, six among the insectivores with respect to foraging behaviour. The results of the PCA showed that habitat structural variables of tropical deciduous forests have a marked pattern of inter-relationships on two axes of landscape behaviour, viz., heterogeneity and complexity. But they failed to reveal any such segregation vis-a-vis bird community structure, as the scale of measurement did not address all the members of the community. The spatial distribution pattern of bird communities in relation to habitat architecture was shown by CCA to be not very tenacious; the interactions of other extraneous factors like floristics, habitat dynamics, phenophases of vegetation, disturbance, or interactions within the community may influence the habitat selection process. There was no linear correlation observed between Foliage Height Diversity and Bird Species Diversity; possible explanations and alternative views have been discussed briefly. The response of bird communities to floristics was found to be inconsistent across habitat types as positive linear relationship was detected only for Teak-dominant forests in winter, and for Anogeiss Boswellia forests and Cleistanthus collinus woodland in summer. Guild compositions of various habitat types were not found to be significanty different from each other though the seasonal change was consistent across all the habitats.
Biogeographical Analysis of Galliformes Distribution in India and Pheasants in the Himalayan Protected Areas
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2007) Jayapal, R.; Sivakumar, K.; Sathyakumar, S; Mathur, V.B.
Conserving biodiversity in the Indian Trans-Himalaya: New initiatives of field conservation in Ladakh : a collaborative project of Wildlife Institute of India, US fish and Wildlife Service and International Snow leopard Trust
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2000) Mathur, V.B.; Bhatnagar, Y.V.; Qureshi, Q.; Chundawat, R.S.; Adhikari, B.S.; Rana, B.S.; Kala, C.P.; Uniyal, V.P.; Vasudevan, K.; Choudhury, B.C.; Vijayakumar, S.P.; Singh, Pratap; Jayapal, R.; Wangchuk, Richen; Hussain, S.A.; Singh, R.K.; Jackson, Rodney; McCarthy, Tom
Distribution and abundance of birds and mammals in the Southern Indian ocean, larsemann hills and princess astrid coast East Antarctica
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2010) Jayapal, R.; Ramesh, K.
The spatial distribution and abundance of sea birds, penguins and pack ice seals along the Southern Ocean, Ingrid Christensen and Princess Astrid Coast during 29th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica was carried out between November 2009 and March 2010. A total of 34 species of birds with an encounter rate of 9.82/ nautical miles2 were recorded. High species turnover of sea birds was observed between 40° and 50° S longitude. Six aerial sorties were flown along the Ingrid Christensen and Princess Astrid Coast to count penguins and seals along the coast, totalling a length of approx. 1200 km. Adelie and Emperor penguins were recorded with encounter rate of 0.63 ± 0.20 (#/nm ±SE) and 3.81 ± 1.68 (#/nm ±SE) respectively at Ingrid Christensen casts. At Princess Astrid Coast more number of Adelie penguins (1.22 ± 0.12/nm ±SE) was recorded when compared to Emperor penguin (0.60 ± 0.2/nm ±SE). In the present survey, a total of 3601 hauled-out seals were counted from six aerial sorties totalling a length of approx. 1200 km, with each sortie lasting about two hours. Weddell seal Leptonychotes weddellii was the most commonly sighted species in both the areas surveyed (98.2%), and had an encounter rate of 2.9 seals/km. The other species encountered during the survey were crab-eater seal Lobodon carcinophagus (1.7%) and leopard seal Hydrurga leptonyx (0.03%). Group size of hauled-out weddell seals varied considerably and ranged from solitary to maximum of 42 individuals. The median group size of weddell seals hauled-out along the Ingrid Christenson coast was found to be significantly different between the December 2009 and January 2010 survey. Further, along this Coast weddell seals were found hauled-out mainly close to the ice shelf and their spatial distribution appeared to be influenced by the extent of sea ice in the area.
Management plan for Rupi-Bhaba Wildlife Sanctuary, Himachal Pradesh
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2010) Jayapal, R.; Ramesh, K.
Patterns of distribution and multiscale-habitat correlates of riverine birds in the upper Ganges, Western Himalaya.
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2021) Sinha, Ankita; Ramesh, K.; Jayapal, R.
Fauna associated with riverine ecosystems vary considerably at the global scale ranging from obligate terrestrial to obligate aquatic. Birds constitute key components of wildlife along running water systems. 2. The global river bird community is diverse with 66 species, spanning across 19 families with 37 non-passerines and 29 passerines. Asia has the maximum number of species followed by South America and Africa. 3. The global distribution ranges of specialist river birds show that large areas of the world hold few or no specialist riverine birds. Richness peaks in the eastern Himalaya and the Myanmar-China border, around the Kakabo Raazi mountains where more than 15 species of specialist river birds overlap in range. 4. Species richness reflects considerable radiation in particular groups; Muscicapidae (small passerine insectivorous birds mostly belonging to the old world) in Asia, ovenbirds (Funariidae) and tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae)in South America, and the Pratincoles (Glareolidae) in Africa. 5. Ecological understanding and conservation efforts of specialist river birds remain rudimentary especially in the tropics where rivers are faced with a host of threats. 6. In this particular study, field surveys were undertaken to understand bird community composition and river habitat characteristics across summer (breeding) and autumn (wintering/non-breeding) seasons in the Bhagirathi basin, a major headstream of the Upper Ganges in the state of Uttarakhand in the western Indian Himalaya between years 2014 and 2018.
To defend or to Not defend? To study resource dependent territoriality in a Sunbird community in Anaikatti hills, Western Ghats
(Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Sakthivel, Sneha Rethinam; Habib, Bilal; Jayapal, R.
Sunbirds are excellent model organisms to study resource dependent territoriality or feeding territoriality due to their dependence on nectar which is both renewable as well as quantifiable. It is well established in many of its ecological counterparts such as American hummingbirds of family Trochilidae, Australian honeyeaters of family Meliphagidae, and Hawaiian honeycreepers of the family Fringillidae. This study is exploratory research aimed to find the presence of feeding territoriality in an Indian sunbird community as well as to test the threshold model of feeding territoriality. The study was done in an heterogenous resource landscape which is not quite comparable to previous studies done on acres of land dominated by single plant species. Though the sunbird community agreed to some basic principles, the results reflect a much complex response to changes in flower abundance and intruder pressure.