A Case of Total Albinism in the Five striped Palm Squirrel Funambulus Pennanti Wroughton in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra State

2005·1.1 MB·

by  Anil Mahabal

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
REFERENCES
Ashraf,N.V.K.,A. Kumar&A.J.T. Johnsingh(1993): OntherelativeabundanceoftwosympatricsquirrelsofWesternGhats, India.J. Bombay
Nat. Hist Soc. 90: 158-162.
Kurup, GU. (1989): Rediscovery ofthesmall Travancore flyingsquirrel. Oryx23: 2-3.
Prater, S.H. (1993): The BookofIndianAnimals, 4,h impression. BombayNatural History Society. Bombay.
4. A CASE OF TOTAL ALBINISM IN THE FIVE-STRIPED PALM SQUIRREL
FUNAMBULUS PENNANTI WROUGHTON IN SINDHUDURG DISTRICT,
MAHARASHTRA STATE
Albinism in wild rodent species is a rare occurrence, 22, 2001. Deogad Fort(16° 23'N, 73°21' E) is situatedvery
thoughithasbeenreportedinsomecasessuchasCremnomys close to the Arabian Sea in the Deogad taluka, Sindhudurg
blanfordi (Rajagopalan 1967), Bandicota indica Rattus district, Maharashtra State.
,
rattus(Pradhan 1975)andFunambuluspermcmti(Chaturvedi After a while, AM and RMS spotted a solitary albino
andGhose 1984). Harrison(1950)hasalsodealtwithalbinism young (hardly a foot away from where the adult was first
as well as melanism in rodent species. Apart from albinism, sighted), which quickly moved into the nesting site, in an
Pradhan(1975, 1993)andBhat(1979)havereportedoccurrence inaccessible rocky crevice, depriving us ofa photographic
of white patches on thoracic and inguinal regions in the opportunity. Further attempts to locate both the individuals
species of Rattus Bandicota Mus and Golunda. Pradhan werefutile. Hutt(1969)consideredalbinismasan indication
, ,
and Mithel (1981) indicated possible genetic control for of infertility. However, in the present case, sighting of an
occurrence ofwhite patch in Rattus rattus rufescens. albinoyoungwith an albino adult indicates the likelihood of
Albinism inFive-stripedpalmsquirrelhasbeenreported a naturally breeding albino population ofF.pennanti in the
from the erstwhile Oudh, Uttar Pradesh (Agrawal and wild.
Chakraborty 1979) and Chandigarh (Chaturvedi and Ghose ThepresentreportofalbinisminF.pennantiisprobably
1984) in India. Since then, no specific report ofalbinism in the third from India. Albinism is known to occur when the
this Indian rodent species is available. InNovember2001, a genesforpigmentationfailtobeexpressed,anditsoccurrence
teamfromtheZoologicalSurveyofIndia,Punevisiteddifferent inthewildisrare.
areasofSindhudurgdistrict, Maharashtra State,to conducta
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
status survey on the Indian Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia
unicolor(Jerdon).Theteamcameacrossalivealbinoformof
a squirrel species. Observing through a pair of 7 x 50 We thank the Director, Zoological Survey of India,
binoculars, we noticed that the individual was white with Kolkataforfacilitiesandencouragement.
faint red spots, narrow stripes on the flanks, pink eyes and
yellowish forehead. Two species of striped squirrels have December17,2002 ANIL MAHABAL
beenreportedfromthisregion(Ellerman 1961): 1.Three-striped R.M. SHARMA'
JungleSquirrel Funambulustristriatuswiththreestripesand M.S. PRADHAN
a distinct red colouration in the inguinal region and on the Zoological SurveyofIndia,
ventral side of the tail and 2. Five-striped Palm Squirrel Western Regional Station,
Funambuluspennantiwithfivestripesandnoredcolouration Vidyanagar, Sector29,
in the inguinal region and below the tail. The F. pennanti RawetRoad,PCNTPostoffice,
specimen studied by Chaturvedi and Ghose (1984) from Pune41 1 044,Maharashtra, India.
Chandigarh wasaspotlesswhite. Oneofus(MSP) identified
the live albino squirrel, photographed near Deogad Fort, as ‘Zoological SurveyofIndia,
Funambulus pennanti Wroughton (Photographic evidence HighAltitude Zoology Field Station,
providedbytheauthors-Eds).Thesquirrelwasseenmoving Saproon,Solan 17321 1,
onarockywall ofthefortinthemorninghoursofNovember Himachal Pradesh, India.
REFERENCES
Agrawal.V.C. & Chakraborty(1979): CatalogueofMammals in the Bhat, Sudha (1979): Studies on Bombay rats. Ph.D. Thesis. Bombay
Zoological SurveyofIndia. RodentiaPart1. Sciuridae.Rec. zool. University, Bombay.
Surv. India 74(4): 333-481. Chaturvedi, Y. & A.K. Ghose (1984): A case ofalbinism in the five
98 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (1), Jan-Apr 2005
) ,
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
striped palm squirrel, Funambulus pennanti Wroughton. Bull. Pradhan,M.S.(1975):StudiesonBombayRats. Ph D.Thesis,Bombay
Zool. Surv. India 6(1-3): 321-322. University, Bombay.
Ellerman,J.R. (1961): The FaunaofBritish India. Mammalia Vol. 3. Pradhan,M.S.(1993): RodentfromNasikDistrict,MaharashtraState.
Rodentia Part I. Govt, ofIndia Press, New Delhi. RodentNewsletter 17(3-4): 1-2.
Harrison, J.L. (1950): The occurrence of albino and melanic rats. Pradhan, M.S. & M. Mithel (1981): White patch and its genetic
J. BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 49(3): 548. control in some ofthe Indian rodent species. J. Bombay Nat
Hutt, F.B. (1969): Genetic aspects of infertility. In: Comparative Hist. Soc 78(1): 164-165.
mammalian Cytogenetics (Ed. Benirschke, K.). Springer-Verlag, Rajgopalan,P.K.(1967):AcaseofalbinisminRattusblanfordt(Thomas)
NewYork. 1881, (Rodentia: Muridae).J BombayNat. Hist. Soc. 64(3): 554.
OCCURRENCE OF LITTLE CORMORANT PHALACROCORAX NIGER IN LADAKH
5.
On the afternoon ofAugust 18, 2002 between 1330- comm.
1340 hours, an adult Little Cormorant Pha/acrocorax niger We thank Otto Pfisterforprovidingus the recent sight
wasobservedintheIndusrivernearMahe(33°05'N and78° record.
02'E)inLadakh,fartothenorthofitshithertoknownrangein
the Indiansubcontinent. Thebirdwasimmediatelyidentified December30,2002 HARKIRAT SINGH SANGHA
as Little Cormorant, a species familiarto the observers. The B-27,GautamMarg,HanumanNagar,
individualwasobservedrepeatedlydivingforfishinthemurky Jaipur302021, Rajasthan, India.
wateroftheswollen river. Email: [email protected]
Ali and Ripley (1981), Grimmett el al. (1998) and
Kazmierczakandvan Perlo(2000)donotmention Ladakh in R1SHAD NAOROJI
the species distribution.As far as we are aware, there are no Godrej Bhavan,4-A, HomeStreet,
previousrecordsoftheLittleCormorantfromLadakhexcept Fort,Mumbai400001
one recent sightingfrom Sheyfish tanks nearLeh wheretwo Maharashtra, India.
birdswere sighted in the summerof2001 (Otto Pfisterpers. Email:[email protected]
Ali, S. & S.D. Ripley (1981): Handbook ofthe Birds of India and Subcontinent. Christopher Helm, London. Pp. 557.
Pakistan Vol. 1, 2nd Edn. Oxford University Press, Delhi. Kazmierczak,K.& B. van Perlo(2000):AFieldGuidetotheBirdsof
Pp. 41-42. the Indian Subcontinent. Pica Press, Robertsbridge, U K.
Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1998): Birds of the Indian Pp. 41-42.
AN INSTANCE OF MORTALITY AND NOTES ON BEHAVIOUR OF
6.
BLACK-NECKED STORKS EPHIPPIORHYNCHUS ASIATICUS
The Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhyrtchus asiaticus whetherthebirdhad beenkilledbycollisionorelectrocution
is one ofthe least studied large waterbirds in India and very with the wire. The stork had been seen to roost alone in an
little is known of their ecology (Rahmani 1989). During adjoining field regularly and was most likely killed while
fieldwork in Etawah and Mainpuri districts, Uttar Pradesh returningtotheroostorflyingfrom ittoawetlandacrossthe
betweenSeptember 1999andJuly2002,1maintaineddetailed road, where it usedto feed duringtheday. The prevalenceof
records ofall sightings ofBlack-necked Storks. In this note, morning and evening fog during December in the area must
an instanceofadultmortalityandsomeinterestingbehaviours have led to the mortality. From interviews with villagers it
aredocumented.Fieldworkwascarriedoutinanareaofc.500 appeared that storks die infrequently in the area due to
sq. km, within the towns of Etawah, Karhal, Kishni and collisionwithelectric lines.
Baralokpur. Whileelectrocution/collisionwithelectricwiresoflarge-
bodied water birds is widespread in occurrence, it has not
Mortality been previously reported for Black-necked Storks, and in
In December 1999, an adult male Black-necked Stork Ciconiidae, collision-related mortality has been previously
wasfounddeadbelowelectriclinesatSaiphai(26°57.063'N, recordedonlyfortheWhiteStorkCiconiaciconia(Bevanger
78° 57.518' E). The body had been in water forthree to four 1998). Infact,there isnoreference in literaturetoanyformof
days when discovered and it was not possible to ascertain adult mortality in Black-necked Storks. However, the
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 102 (1), Jan-Apr 2005 99