作者
Zarreen Syed, Orus Ilyas
发表日期
2012/3
期刊
DSG Newsletter
卷号
24
页码范围
412
简介
Out of seven species of Musk deer found in Asia, five are present in India. One of these species, the Alpine musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), is found in Uttrakhand Himalayas, is endangered (IUCN 2011) and listed in Appendix I of CITES. This species is also listed in Schedule I of Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. The species has been exploited for its „Musk‟ for centuries and due to large scale poaching and extensive habitat destruction, it is restricted to a few isolated pockets in the Himalayas. To understand the current status and distribution of the species, intensive surveys were conducted in 14 different high altitude sites of Uttrakhand. The survey found indirect evidence from all 14 sites, but direct sightings of the species was recorded only from eight sites, and most of the detected sites were within Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary (KWLS) and its surrounding areas. During the pre-monsoon period of 2011, the survey was conducted in Saukhark, Tungnath and Chandrashila, and we recorded 7 encounters of musk deer. All the sightings were from the Saukhark area, which is dominated by alpine meadows. Intensive studies were carried out in KWLS to understand the food and feeding habits of musk deer. We recorded 5 tree, 16 shrub, 47 herb and 7 grass species in our vegetation sampling. We prepared 130 slides of pellet groups and plant fragments in 5 fields of view from each slide were examined and compared to a reference collection. A total of 36 plant species were identified from the musk deer pellet group (2 shrub, 31 herb and 3 grass species). The results shows that musk deer are predominantly a browser and the preferred species …
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