RESEARCH ARTICLE

TO ASSESS THE ECOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION STATUS OF THE INDIAN RATEL (Mellivora capensis indica) IN SAURASHTRA AND KACHCHH, GUJARAT, INDIA

Abstract

The Indian Ratel (Mellivora capensis indica) is one of such enigmatic mammalian species which is today considered to be among the animals that are threatened, mainly because of anthropogenic pressures. Population density of Ratel was poorly understood because of paucity of in-depth studies. Thus this study was very important and focused to understand the population and distribution status of the proposed study area, with emphasis in a region of Human dominated landscape. This study was conducted across two large areas in semi-arid regions of Gujarat (India). The Kachchh covered an area of 2851 km2 in northern Gujarat while the second site covers 1083 km2 of a part of Kathiawar’s undulating and shrub land area named Surendranagar & Rajkot Range in south-western Gujarat. Trap camera was used to find out their presence and transect sampling was applied to estimate abundances and densities of Ratel in these study areas. Through camera trap, 12 individual Ratel were captured, in the entire study area based upon the effort exerted through 1260 trap nights. The sample area was effectively estimated with a total of 776.62 km of transects traversed and result shown that Ratel densities were higher in Kachchh because of greater availability of hilly terrain and a greater degree of protection offered by the low anthropogenic pressure that prevail in Kachchh. The possibility of ‘Ratel populations are determined by protected area’ is supported by the results; Ratel densities shown three times lower in Rajkot’s reserve forest area in compare with Kachchh.

Keywords: Indian Ratel, Mellivora capensis indica, enigmatic, density, Kachchh, Semi-Arid, Kathiawar.

How to Cite: Jadeja,S.J,Vora,G,Thoria,V, (2018). TO ASSESS THE ECOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION STATUS OF THE INDIAN RATEL (Mellivora capensis indica) IN SAURASHTRA AND KACHCHH, GUJARAT, INDIA.WILDLANKA, 6(2):Pages 048-052

Published On:2018-06-30

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