Theses and Dissertations

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Author: search.filters.author.Johnsingh, A.J.T.Subject: search.filters.subject.Ecology

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    Ecology of the Asiatic Lion Panthera leo persica.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1993) Chellam, Ravi; Johnsingh, A.J.T.
    The major objectives of my study were to assess the predation ecology, habitat use and the ranging patterns of the lions in the Gir forest. The ultimate and long term goal of this research effort was to examine the feasibility of a translocation effort in an attempt to establish a free ranging population of lions away from the Gir forest. The ecological data generated a free ranging population of lions away from the Gir forest. The ecological data generated would enable the assessment of prospective translocation sites and insights gained about lion behavoiur. This study was designed to have an extensive scope to generate base line data for planning and management of gir forest and the lions.
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    Ecology and Management of Lion and ungulate habitats in Gir.
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1995) Sharma, Diwakar; Johnsingh, A.J.T.
    The Gir is the only refuge of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) in its range. This implies that long term conservation of the Asiatic lion will remain an overirding management objective. A study on the impacts of management practices on lion and ungulate habitat was conducted in Gir Protected Area (PA) from June 1991 to July 1994. The Gir . PA includes Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park. It is situated between 200 55' to 21 0 20 'N and 700 25' to 71 0 15' E in the Southern part of Kathiawar peninsula in western Gujarat. Gir PA (hereafter Gir) is located about 60km South of Junagadh. The area which was .3,107 sq km iIi 1877 (Joshi 1976) has been presently reduced to 1,412 sq km, o~ which about 259 sq Ian is national nark. Gir is the last refuge of the wild Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) and long term conservation of the Asiatic lion is an overriding management objective of Gir. In order to improve habitat conditions in Gir, the park authorities, over the last 20-25 years have made some management interventions such as relocation of some maldharis (local graziers), reduction in livestock grazing (specially migrant livestock during the rainy season) and fire control. These measures have led to vegetational recovery and increase in wild ungulate and lion populations. Understanding this vegetational recovery was thought to be crucial to determine the extent of management intervention required. It also needed to be determined if the trend (especially in the western Gir) was toward a higher woody proportion both at shrub and tree levels, and whether this in long term would adversely affect ' the distribution and abundance of ungulates, and therefore, group hunting by the lions, their pride size and territoriality.
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    The Grey tit (Parus major caschmerensis) in Northern India: Behaviour and Ecology in the non-breeding season
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1995) Quader, Suhel; Johnsingh, A.J.T.; Qureshi, Qamar
    Studied the grey tit (Parus major caschmerensis) in Naina Devi Sanctuary. in the Shivalik hills of the Himachal Pradesh Himalaya. This is a subspecies of the well-studied great tit which ranges over a large part of Eurasia. The study had two main components: a. to investigate the non-breeding behaviour and ecology of this bird in India, and to interpret the findings with respect to what is known about the species from more northern areas (a comparative approach). b. to study the behaviour of individuals in the context of short· and long-tenn processes (in the winter, examples of these might be survival and reproduction. respectively), I collected data on colour-banded grey tits by following individuals, and recording behaviour using the point-sampling technique with one-minute intervals. Field work was carried out between December 1994 and April 1995. Throughout this study, I refer to the subspecies in India as grey tits, those studied in Europe and Japan as the great tit, and to the species as a whole as Parus major. In a comparison with what is known about great tits, the following points emerge: .Grey tits do not spend the winter in flocks of conspecifics; instead. they are either solitary or in pairs. This is associated with comparatively high winter temperatures, and may be the result of a low seasonality in resource abundance allowing for greater territorial site-fidelity. Sexual dimorphism in bill shape mirrors that found in a previous study on great tits in England, where males have deeper and shorter beaks than females, tend to forage more on beech seeds, and are more efficient at doing so than females. Grey tits show a sexual dimorphism in beak shape paralleling this, and males exhibit a strong tendency to forage more on Acacia catechu (from which largely pods are taken) than females, implying that similar ecomorphological processes can operate in populations widely separated in space. Grey tits use a wider variety of foraging substrates than their more northern counterparts, and correspondingly spend less time foraging on the ground. This is' associated with the absence of any congeners, although whether it is a case of competitive release is open to dispute. The Indian birds seem to spend more time feeding than what has been reported for English great tits. The greater time spent feeding is perhaps unexpected given the comparatively higher winter temperatures, and longer day-lengths in Naina Devi than in northern Europe. While a strict comparison of different studies may not be entirely valid, the solitary/pair living habit of grey tits may result in lower levels of aggression, and this may allow for more feeding time. The date of laying is related to the duration for which the male and female have been together (i.e pairing date). Birds which paired early bred early, though this is based on a limited sample of four pairs. If this relationship is causal, and if reproductive success decreases through the breeding season (as has been shown for many temperate species), it would imply a strong selection pressure for early pairing in the great tit. As breeding approached, males spent less time feeding than in the winter, and were involved in greater territorial activity such as singing. Female time budgets showed a similar, though nonsignificant trend over the season. Pooling sexes, the proportion of time spent tended towards a decrease as summer drew near. This decrease approached statistical significance.