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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES REFERENCES Corbet, G. & J. Hill (1992): The Mammals of the Indo-Malayan Prater, S.H. (1980): The BookofIndian Mammals. Bombay Natural Region: ASystematic Review. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, History Society and Oxford University Press, Bombay, 496 pp. 324 pp. Menon,V.(2003):AFieldGuidetoIndianMammals.DorlingKindersley Sathasivam,K. (1999): Thestripedsquirrelsofsouth India.Blackbuck (India)-Penguin BooksIndia,New Delhi, 201 pp. 15(1): 7-12. Nameer, P.O. (2000): Checklist of Indian Mammals. Kerala Forest Sterndale,R.A. (1884): MammaliaofIndia[1982reprint] Himalayan Department (Wildlife Wing) Thrissur, 90+ xxv pp. Books,New Delhi, 540pp. 5. THE GAUR BOS FRONTALIS LAMBERT IN MANIPUR1 Anwaruddin Choudhury2 'Accepted May 16, 2006 2The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-east India, Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781 021. Assam. India. Email: [email protected] The Gaur Bos frontalis Lambert is distributed in range and Shiroi; (2) Bunning area; (3) Jiri-Makru forests; north-easternIndiaindiscretepopulations(Choudhury2002). (4)Chandeldistrict;(5)Tolbungforestsandstrayindividuals The Gaur population in Manipur is poorly known and is elsewhere.Inthemeantime,thehumanpopulationofManipur believedtobeverysmall(Choudhury 1992). Fieldtripswere grewfrom 1.07millionin 1971 to2.29millionsin 2001 (Gol madeinApril 1988,January 1996,JanuaryandOctober2001, 2001), i.e. more than double in two decades indicating andFebruary 2002toassessthecurrent statusoftheGaurin phenomenalincreaseinjhumcultivation. Manipur.ThestateofManipur(23°49'-25°42’N,93°00'-94° The main Gaur populations are now confined to the 45'E; 22,327 sq. kminarea), (Fig. 1 )hastwophysiographic five areas where they were in the 1990s, but in a reduced units - Manipur or Imphal Valley and Manipur Hills. The highest ranges are towards north with Mt. Tenipu or Iso m (2,900 abovemsl asthehighestpeak.Thelowestelevation ) isintheriverbedsneartheAssam-Manipurborder(lessthan m 50 abovemsl). Tillabout 1950s,theGaurwaswidespreadalloverthe hillsinthestate,especiallyinthedistrictsofUkhrul,Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur, Chandel and Jiribarn subdivision ofImphal district. Stray animals were reported from the hilly areas ofThoubal and Bishnupur (Bishenpur) districts. By then, however, the Gaur has vanished from the Valley. Infact,evenattheturnofthe20thcentury,thespecies was scarce near the Valley. The Gaur was nevercommon in recent memory as its meat was considered amajordelicacy by all the tribes (Zeliangrong. Mao and Tangkhul Nagas, Kukis, Hmars, Biates, Paites andMizos), and hunting was a regular feature. In the 1960s, when the insurgency started, modern firearms became handy resulting in phenomenal increase in poaching. With the gradual increase in human population,thedestructionofforestthroughfellingandjhum cultivation has also increased. By 1970s, the main Gaur strongholds remained only in the western and eastern hills with small populations elsewhere. By 1980s, they vanished fromthe northern hills except forstray individuals from the Dzuko valley and adjacent hilltops. In the 1990s, the Gaur survivedonly in afew areas, namely (1)Anko/AngoChing J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (2), May-Aug 2007 203 ) i , MISCELLANEOUS NOTES number. The approximate area and numbers are as follows: Habitat destruction and poaching continue to be Anko/AngoChingrange andShiroi (300sq. km)ofUkhrul major threats. The main cause of decline is unreported district inthenorth-east. Thispopulationhascontiguitywith poaching. Protection measures in the sanctuaries should forestsinMyanmarandabout40-80Gaurscouldstillbefound. be strengthened. Anko/ Ango Ching range and Shiroi Bunning Wildlife Sanctuary (115 sq. km) and Jiri-Makru should be declared wildlife sanctuaries. Conservation forests(198 sq.km)ofTamenglongdistrictinthenorth-west education among villagers living along the fringe have a small population of less than 30 animals. In Chandel areas of PAs with the help of NGOs is also strongly district,afewareseen intheYangoupokpi-LokchaoWildlife recommended. Sanctuary(184.80sq.km),butlessthan30animalsarefound intheforests(>50sq.km)towardssouth,whichalsomoveto ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the Myanmarforests. InTolbung ReservedForest (>100 sq. km) and Kailam Wildlife Sanctuary (187 sq. km) of I would liketothankthe followingfortheirassistance Churachandpurdistrict,onlystrayanimalsorgroupssurvive. duringthestudy.R.K.RanjanSingh,SameerKhan,K.Muivah, Fromtheaboveaccount,it seemsthatthetotal number Ibohandi Singh; Lungkiang Pamei and Ramkung Pamei. ofGaurinManipurisonly 120-160.Thelong-termsurvivalof Mrs. AnneWright, Ratul Talukdarand Hakim ofThe Rhino Gaurs in Manipur is bleak as the existing numbers are not FoundationforNatureinNEIndia.Specialthankstomyfather only very small, but are also severely fragmented with no thelateAlauddinChoudhury whointroducedmetoManipur possibility of contiguity. The protected areas, where a few in 1988,andwasalsoofconstanthelpduringmysubsequent gaurs still survive, are inadequately protected. fieldtrips. REFERENCES Choudhury,A.U. (1992): Wildlife in Manipur-apreliminary survey. Tigerpciper19(1): 20-28. Choudhury, A.U. (2002): Distribution and Conservation ofthe Gaur Bos gaums in the Indian subcontinent. Mammal Review 32(3): 199-226. Gol (2001): The CensusofIndia2001. GovernmentofIndia, New Delhi. SIGNIFICANT NEW LOW ELEVATION RECORD 6. FOR GORAL NEMORHAEDUS GORAL (HARDWICKE) 1 Anwaruddin Choudhury2 'Accepted May 10, 2005 :The Rhino Foundation for Nature in North-east India, Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781 021, Assam, India. Email: [email protected] The Goral (genusNemorhaedus isrepresented in the Hill 1992). ItisonlyathigherlatitudessuchasUssuriareaof Indian subcontinent by three forms, which are treated as eastern Russiathatitoccursatthesealevel (Schaller 1977). different subspecies as well as species -goral, bailey and In the lower latitude, including the Indian subcontinent, caudatus(Choudhury 2003;CorbetandHill 1992;Ellerman theknown loweraltitudinallimitwas820m. Thealtitudinal andMorrison-Scott 1951;WilsonandReeder 1993),however, movement in the Himalaya is mainly noticed in winter due therewasnoproperdescriptionofupgradingtheseasdistinct to heavy snowfall in the higher elevations. I here report species except popular descriptions, such as Groves and an interesting observation where goral was recorded at a Grubb(1985).Thereisalsosignificantcolourdifferencewithin very low elevation at latitudes it was never recorded a species or even subspecies. In Himalayan goral N. goral earlier. which is grey-brown, although the tendency is not to OnNovember28,2004,threeboatmenwhilepullinga recognize hodgsoni as a subspecies, latter form is rufous- boatupstreamhadnoticedtwo ‘wildgoats’ -goralorserow brownanddistinctinthefield.TheChinesegoralN. caudatus - on a cliff on the right bank of the Manas river in Royal in the Himalaya and Mishmi Hills is dark grey, while form ManasNational Park, Bhutan (26°49' N, 90°56'E) (Fig. 1). evansiinMizoramisbrown. TheboatwaspulledtoPanbang,asub-divisionalheadquarter Thegoraloccursinthehillsandmountains,preferring in Bhutan forme whereI wascamping. The nextday, while cliffsandrockyhillsidesfromelevationsrangingfrom900to boating downstream, the boatmen showed me the spot, but 4,250m(Prater 1980),from 820mupinPakistan(Corbetand the ‘wildgoats’ werenotthere. Suddenlyoneoftheboatmen 204 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (2), May-Aug 2007