High altitude Records of the House Crow Corvus Splendens in Western Arunachal Pradesh, India

2008·0.55 MB·

by  Lohit Gogoi

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
HIGH-ALTITUDE RECORDS OF THE HOUSE CROW CORVUS SPLENDENS
7.
IN WESTERN ARUNACHAL PRADESH. INDIA
LohitGogoi13, PemaWange1, P.K. Dutta1-4and Rakesh Soud2
‘WesternArunachalLandscapeProgramme.ArunachalPradeshFieldOffice,WorldWideFundforNature-India.Dirang,WestKameng
Distt790 101,ArunachalPradesh, India.
2Qtt.No.750(D),BRPLTownship,Dhaligaon.Chirangdistrict783385,BTAD,Assam,India.Email:[email protected]
’Email: [email protected]
4Email: [email protected]
In October and November 2008, we observed House and Naoroji (2003) recorded the species from human
Crows Corvus splendens at high altitudes on several settlements of Koksar at 3,200 m and Dracha at 3,370 m
occasions in different sites of western Arunachal Pradesh, ofHimachal Pradesh and from Karu and Hanle ofLadakh
India. The species was recorded in the Lumpo village atc. 3,500mand4,240mrespectively,whichwaspreviously
(27° 43' 07.2" N; 91° 42' 57.7" E) at 2,544 m in apair, then reported to be the highest altitude record of House
a single individual near Geypo-Namse lake of Bangajang Crows.
wetlandcomplex(27°30'02.8"N;92°OP45.9"E)at4,230m LiketheHouseSparrowPasserdomesticus,theHouse
ofTawang district andothersingle sightings were recorded Crowisacommensalspecies.Increasedtourism,development
fromThungriarea(27°26’50.3"N;92°22'44.6"E)at3,190m, of permanent army camps and exploration of new grazing
PotakareanearChomulake(27°37' 19.4"N;92°22'07.7"E) sites in different high altitude areas of Arunachal Pradesh
at4,374 m ofWest Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, seems to have facilitated its spread to higher areas recently.
India, whichareprobably amongthe highestaltituderecord Additionalobservationsonthesightingofthespeciesinsuch
forthis species. altitudes would be useful to understand: i) whether it is a
According to Kazmierczak and van Perlo (2000) the morecommondistributionalpatternthanhasbeenpreviously
m
species ischieflyfoundbelow 1,600 butsometimes upto observedandii)thecontributionofthespeciesinhighaltitude
m
2,400m.Grimmettetal. (1998)noteditoccursupto2,100 ecosystems.
inIndiaandupto2,500minsummerin Bhutan. InNepal,it
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
isfoundbelow 1,525 m, with only onereport from a higher
m
altitude: 2,100 atNagarkotonFebruary09, 1993 (Inskipp
and Inskipp 1991). In Sikkim, an individual was recorded WearethankfultotheofficestaffofArunachalPradesh
by F.N. Betts at 2,600 m in May 1943 (Ali 1962). Sangha Field Office, WWF-India, Dirang fortheirencouragements.
REFERENCES
Ali, S. (1962): The Birds ofSikkim. Oxford University Press, Delhi. Kazmierczak, K. & B. van Perlo (2000): A Guide to the Birds
414pp. of the Indian Subcontinent. Pica Press, Mountfield, Sussex.
Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp & T. Inskipp (1998): Birds of the Indian 352pp.
Subcontinent. ChristopherHelm. London. 384pp. Sangha,H.S.&R.Naoroji(2003): High-altituderecordsoftheHouse
Inskipp,C. &T. Inskipp(1991):AGuidetothe BirdsofNepal. Second Crow Corvus splendens in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and
edition.ChristopherHelm,London.400pp. Kashmir, India. Forktail19: 141-142.
STATUS AND CONSERVATION OF BRISTLED GRASSBIRD
8.
CHAETORNIS STRIATA IN CORBETT NATIONAL PARK
Manoj Sharma1
‘VillageShankarpur,Ramnagar244715,DistrictNainital,Uttarakhand,India. Email: [email protected]
Bristled Grassbird Chaetornis striata is one of the International 2001). It is a resident species and distributed
largestwarblersoftheworldandaglobally-threatenedspecies overmost ofthe Indian subcontinent, but is very local in its
with IUCN status Vulnerable. It occurs rather erratically occurrence(AliandRipley 1997).Therareendemicappears
throughoutarangethatencompasseslowlandPakistan,much tobecloselytiedtoswampyareas(Roberts 1992). Historical
ofIndia,theNepalteraiandhistoricallyBangladesh(BirdLife records indicate that the species was fairly common, but it
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 105 (3), Sep-Dec 2008 339