Possible Occurrence of the Lesser Woolly Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus Beddomei) in Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary

2 Pages·2000·1.2 MB·

by  Kumaran Sathasivam

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
INSTANCES OF FRUITBAT MOBBING THE BARN OWL
1.
On the night of September 16, 1997, my the second bird left, the bat wasjoined by three
familyandIwerewatchingthetotallunareclipse others, andallfourstartedmobbingthefirstbird.
fromourterracegardenatSion,Mumbai. Apair Thesecondbirdthenstartedscreechingandflew
ofbam owls (Tyto alba), which were nesting in overits mate in an attempttoprotect it. The first
the rafters ofthebuilding nextto ourhouse, had bird then gathered enough courage to fly offto
thehabitofperchingonatreeoppositeourhouse. its roosting place in the rafters of the next
The canopyofthetreewas ateye level from our building.
terrace garden on the 3rd floor. Fruit bats or It was amazing that, inspite of such
Indian flying foxes (Pteropus giganteus) continuous mobbing, the owl which was being
regularlyfly allaroundthe area, cominginlarge mobbedrarelyflewoff,anditsonlyevasiveaction
numbers mainly from their huge roosting sites was to duck. The bird flew away only when its
at Five Gardens, Dadar, Mumbai. matecametohelp,orwhenthemobbingbecame
As we watched, abatstartedmobbing one unbearable. I am quite sure that both the birds
ofthe owls perched on the topmostbranch. The were adults, not a protective parent and its
owl immediately ducked and turned its face offspring.
nearly upside down to look at the attacker. At It was lovely to see this drama as well as
the same time its mate, which was sitting on a the total lunar eclipse. Instances like these have
lowerbranch,gavealoudsquawkofprotest. The beenregularlysightedbyus,atleastonceaweek,
bat then wheeled around and once again came even to the date ofwriting this note.
tomobthefirstbirdwhichduckedoutofdanger.
Theowlrefusedtoflyawayormovedowntothe ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
lower branches. This went on for about 10
minutes wherein 17 attempts were made by the I am grateful to Dr. A.R. Rahmani,
bat, out of which about 12 resulted in contact. Director, Bombay Natural History Society, for
At least 5 times the bird was nearly dislodged his guidance, help and valuable suggestions.
from its perch. We could clearly see that all the
mobbingby thebatwas done with its wings. All March 2, 1998 SUNILR. ZAVERI
the time both the birds were calling regularly. Arham, TopFloor,
The second bird then took offand sat on Plot No. 266, Sion (East),
an adjacent tree, while the first bird was still Mumbai 400 022,
perched initsoriginalplace. A fewminutes after Maharashtra. India.
POSSIBLE OCCURRENCE OF THE LESSER WOOLLY HORSESHOE
2.
BAT (RHINOLOPHUSBEDDOMEI) INCHINNARWILDLIFE SANCTUARY
During a short visit to Chinnar Wildlife equipped with echolocating apparatus. For a
Sanctuary, Kerala, in October 1997, some microchiropteran, it was a large animal, and
membersofmygroupfoundablackbathanging appearedblackoverall.Thenextmorning, itwas
from the doorway of a building at the Chinnar found roosting alone in a dark corner near the
checkpostone evening. The surrounding habitat ceiling ofthe same building.
included riparian gallery forest and light Using BATS OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT by
deciduous forest. Judging from the appearance Paul Bates and David Harrison, I tentatively
ofits face, thebat appearedtobe insectivorous, identified the bat as Rhinolophus beddomei, the
136 JOURNAL BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY 97ft} APR. 2000
,
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
lesser woolly horseshoe bat, on the basis ofits Thelesserwoollyhorseshoebatisendemic
largesize,colour,habitatandsolitaryoccurrence. to peninsular India and Sri Lanka. In Kerala, it
I had an occasion to visit Chinnar again has hitherto been recorded from Wynaad,
inJune 1998. 1foundabat,presumablythesame Tellicherry, Trichur district and Palghat. This
individual, roosting at the same place as it had report constitutes a possible new record of a
been doing nine months earlier. Even with a species which has been described as very
moderatelybrighttorch, no furtherdetails could vulnerable to habitat destruction on account of
benotedtoascertainitsidentity. Iwas,however, low densitypopulations and forest dependency.
able to photograph it using a flash this time. On a later visit to the same place in
The photograph strengthens the February 1999, 1 could not find any bat.
impression thatthe bat is indeed a lesserwoolly
horseshoe bat. The animal is seen to behanging March 23, 1999 KUMARANSATHASIVAM
byone leg, whichis a habitcharacteristic ofthat 29Jadamuni Koil Street,
species. Further,Dr. PaulBates,whostudiedthis Madurai 625 001,
picturewrotethathethoughtitwas Rhinolophus TamilNadu
beddomei. India.
DEAD SNOW LEOPARD UNCIA UNCIA ATYABUK,
3.
DONGKUNG (5500M) INNORTH SIKKIM
Snow leopard Uncia uncia is protected in Unfortunately feral dogs discovered the
ScheduleIoftheIndianWildlife(Protection)Act, carcass. The next day, most ofthe softer parts,
1972 as amendedupto 1998. There are almostno the internal organs and the ribs had been
recent sight records of this rare big cat from eaten away. The grazier collected the remains.
Sikkim,thelastbeingacubfromSebuLaregion Almost in the same sleeping posture, most
in Lashar valley, north Sikkim. The male cub of the carcass except the head and shoulders
‘Shebu’ survivedforlessthanayearincaptivity dried naturally in the cold of this desert area.
in Gangtok in 1993-1994. There has been no Six months later, on May 16, 1999, he brought
study so far on its present status in Sikkim. the remains down to Gangtok in a highly
OnNovember 18, 1998, aTibetan grazier decomposed state and deposited them in the
or ‘dokpa’ was attracted by a hovering raven Wildlife Circle of the Department of Forests,
while grazing his yaks at Yabuk (c. 5500m), a Environment & Wildlife. The heat accele-
rockyplace about2 km above Dongkung, atthe rated putrefaction and we tried to save the
foot of Chomiomo peak on the Chho Lhamo specimen as much as possible by skinning.
Plateau. Upon investigating, he saw what he On examining thejaws ofthe snow leopard, we
thought was a sleeping, probably sick, snow saw that the upper left canine was missing, as
leopard in the grass at the base of some large was one incisor in the upper jaw. The other
boulders. Sensing something was wrong, he teethwere also worn out and yellow: The claws
drove awaytheravenandwentcloser. He found were blunt. The front pad in the pug measured
it was an adult male snow leopard lying dead in 8.5 cm and the hind, 8 cm. The tail mea-
sleepingposture. The spotwas very isolatedand sured 92 cm and had a diameter of c. 13 cm.
intending to return the next day to collect the The bones were buried in the ground to remove
specimen to bring down to me in Gangtok, he thetissue.Theywerelatercleanedandmeasured
wentback to his camp. (Table 1).
JOURNAL, BOMBAYNATURAL HISTORYSOCIETY, 97(1), APR. 2000 137