First Sighting of White tailed Eagle Haliaeetus Albicilla in Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhutan

2007·1.1 MB·

by  Anwaruddin Choudhury

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Sampora near Ghilamora was reduced to a few individuals, Dhemajiwas 150-200and450-550respectively.
while those in Bordoibam-Bilmukh were almost extirpated. The population in Kobo chapori is contiguous with
StrayanimalswerestillobservedinDulling,KakoiandRanga thosein D'EringMemorial Wildlife Sanctuary inArunachal
RFs,especiallyalongtherivers. Bordoibam-Bilmukhisabird Pradesh. Both theseareas hadafew hundred Flog Deeruntil
sanctuary and is partly in Lakhimpur and partly in Dhemaji 1980s.
districts;themaindeerhabitatwasinLakhimpurdistrict.The The firstmajorthreattotheHogDeercameattheend
entire grasslandandreedbedalongthe westernfringeofthe of19thcenturywhenlargenumberofpeoplefromMajuliarea
Sanctuary was destroyed by a section of the villagers who of Jorhat district and also from other parts of Jorhat and
were opposed to the declaration ofa sanctuary. While afew Sivasagardistricts settled down by clearing grassland in the
deer could escape, the rest were killed for the pot. The floodplains of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji. Then in early 20lh
survivors (about20)arestill seeninGohainchaporitowards century, a part ofLakhimpur was occupied by people from
westofBordoibam-Bilmukh.InDhemajidistrict,however,the EastBengal;partofPabhoRFisalsoencroached. Inthe later
populations continued to exist in the earlier sites, but in part of the 20th century, some Bodo tribals from Assam-
depleted numbers. Kobochapori had suffered heavily in the NagalandborderhadmovedintosomepartsofDhemajidistrict
flashfloodin2000andtherewerefreshencroachments. The afterdisturbanceintheformerarea.Theyhaveoccupiedprime
estimatednumberswere<200. InBordolonialso,thereedand Hog Deerhabitatsuch asJamjingRFandSemen chapori.
grass cover had been reduced and the numbers may be Habitat destruction and poaching, with guns and
<80, Poba RF, Jamjing RF (<40), Sengajan RF, Jiadhal RF, snares, continue to be major threats. Each year, a chunk of
SubansiriRF,chaporiesnearSonarighat,Semenchapori,other the grassland is added to the mustard cultivation and unless
chapories on the Brahmaputra river and stray animals conservation measures are taken, the future ofthe animal is
elsewhere. The total estimatedpopulation inLakhimpurand bleak.
REFERENCES
Choudhury, A.U. (1991): New Dhakuakhana Sub-Division. Annual Report. Revenue, Relief & Rehabilitation, and Registration Departments,
Govt, ofAssam, 1990-91: 111-117. Guwahati.
Choudhury,A.U. (1997): Checklistofthe MammalsofAssam. Gibbon BooksandASTEC, Guwahati. 103 pp.
FIRST SIGHTING OF WHITE-TAILED EAGLE HALIAEETUS ALBICIELA
9.
IN BUMDELING WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, BHUTAN1
Anwaruddin Choudhury2
'Accepted May 16, 2006
The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-east India, Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781 021. Assam, India.
Email: [email protected]
The White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla is listed
by BirdLife International (2004) as ‘nearthreatened’. In the
north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, including
Bhutan,itisanoccasionalwintervisitormovingupstreamof
largerrivers(Choudhury2000;Inskippetal.2004). InBhutan,
itwasrecordedfromthewesternpartofthecountryinPunakha
and Thimphu dzongkhags (dzongkhag - district) (Inskipp
etal. 2004). IherereportofasightinginfareasternBhutanin
BumdelingWildlifeSanctuary(Fig. 1).
On January 18, 2006, I left Trashi Yangtze town (in
Bhutan)beforedawnanddrovetowardsBumdelingWildlife
SanctuarytocatchupwiththeroostingBlack-neckedCranes
Grits nigricollis that take off early in the morning. While
returning, we noticed a large bird perched on a tree by the Fig. 1: MapofBhutanshowingthelocalityofsighting
1 Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (2), May-Aug 2007 209
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Khulong chu (c/u<=river). Khulong chu is an important Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary, and from eastern Bhutan.
tributary ofthe Manas river. Initially we thought it to be a Interestingly, thisbirdisknowntomoveuplargerrivers, such
large fish-owl, but on observing it through a powerful asthe BrahmaputraandLohit, but Khulongchuisarelatively
spotting scope, we identified it as an eagle; the bird flew small river compared to other rivers where the species was
away before we could get a closer look. After some time it recordedearlier. Moreover,ithasmovedupfarnorth.
perched again on atree. This time we identifiedthe bird, to
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ouruttersurprise,asthemagnificentadultWhite-tailedEagle.
Weobserveditforabout20minutesandalsotooksomestill
and video photographs, through the spotting scope. The IthankdashoTsheringWangda,JointSecretary,Home,
photos, though taken fromadistanceofatleast250m, were RoyalGovernmentofBhutan,SherubandSharapWangchuk
ofgoodquality. Thelocationwasat27°38'20"Nand91°28' of Nature Conservation Division, Mohabbat Shah Ali and
40" E,andtheelevationwas 1,900mabovemsl. ImranMazumdar(Babu)fortheirhelpandsupportduringthe
This is the first record of the White-tailed Eagle from visittoBumdelingWildlifeSanctuary.
REFE NCES
BirdLife International (2004): Threatened Birds of the World. Books and WWF-lndia. 240 pp.
CD-ROM.Cambridge,U.K.: BirdLifeInternational. Inskipp.C„T.Inskjpp&R.Grimmett(2004):BirdsofBhutan.Timeless
Choudhury,A.U.(2000):TheBirdsofAssam.Guwahati,India:Gibbon Books. New Delhi. 192 pp.
SIGHTING OF LARGE NUMBER OF SHORT-TOED EAGLE CIRCAETUS GALLICUS AND
10.
GREATER ADJUTANT LEPTOPTILOS DUBIUS IN KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK1
Anwaruddin Choudhury2
'Accepted May 17, 2006
:The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-east India, Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781 021, Assam, India.
Email: [email protected]
The Short-toedEagle Circaetusgallicuswasrecorded On the same day. near the junction of the road to
for the first time in Assam in Dhakuakhana area in 1991 MethonmarionArimora-Hulalpatroad,50 GreaterAdjutants
(Choudhury 1991).Priortothattherewasnoreportfromnorth- Leptoptilosdubiuswere seen flying fromeasttowest. They
eastIndia(AliandRipley 1987).Subsequently,itwassighted were seen flying from west ofArimoraand when above the
in some more areas like the Nameri National Park (NP), Arimora-Methonmari road, they soared for a while before
ChakrashilaSanctuary,KazirangaNP,nearAbhoyapuri.Most flying off towards the east and south-east. Up to the point
ofthesightingswereofsinglebirds.OnNovember20,2005, wheretheytooktosoartheycamelikeagroup,butafterwards
while driving along the patrol roads in Arimora area of splitintosmallergroupsandindividuals,andflewdownwards
Kaziranga NP, accompanied by Dharanidhar Boro, Ranger, (could be observed till tree line blocked view). For
IsawaShort-toedEagleperchedonamedium-sizedSilkCotton Dharanidhar Boro also sighting of such large number of
Bombax ceiba tree. Before I could attempt to take a GreaterAdjutantsinKazirangawasafirsttime.Themaximum
photograph, one more was seen soaring overhead, followed number of Greater Adjutants seen together was 87 resting
by another three, all singly. We moved towards the road to duringthedaytimeonthebanksofthe Brahmaputrariveroff
BorbeelwheretwowereseenperchedonasingleSilkCotton GuwahaticityonMarch 14, 1994(Choudhury2000).However,
tree. We were surprised to see afew more, soaring or flying just after the breeding season, more than 80 birds roost at
offfromoneSilkCottontoanother.Thetotaltally,inthesame Islampurkabrstan(26°10'N,91°45'E)intheheartofGuwahati
area, was 11 birds. Most of the birds had typical plumage city.TheGreaterAdjutantislistedasendangeredbecauseof
with grey head and breast, barred underbody and broad its very small, declining population (BirdLife International
sub-terminaltail-band. 2004).
REFERENCES
An,S.&S.D. Ripley(1987):CompactHandbookoftheBirdsofIndia Choudhury, A.U. (1991): Two new eagles in Assam. Newsletterfor
andPakistan.Bombay,India:OxfordUniversityPress.737pp,plates. Birdwatchers 31 (11 & 12): 910.
BirdLife International (2004): Threatened Birds of the World. Choudhury,A.U.(2000):TheBirdsofAssam.Guwahati.India:Gibbon
CD-ROM.Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLifeInternational. Books and WWF-lndia. 240 pp.
210 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (2), May-Aug 2007