Articles
Population density and biomass of the wild prey species in a tropical deciduous forest, Central India
Authors:
Kannadasan Narasimmarajan,
Wildlife Institute of India and Department of Zoology, Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai 600059, Tamil Nadu, IN
Subhasis Mahato ,
Wildlife Institute of India, IN
Abinash Parida
Wildlife Institute of India, IN
Abstract
For proper management of a wildlife reserve, it is essential to estimate density and biomass of herbivores that in turn determine the density of carnivores. We estimated the population density and biomass of three ungulates and two other species in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, Central India. The study was conducted from September 2010 to April 2011. We used distance sampling to estimate the population density of wild prey species. The 225km2 intensive study area was found to have high prey species density (69.5±8.3 individuals/km2), with gray langur being the abundant prey species (42.9±7.2 individuals/km2), followed by sambar (10.5±3.5 individuals/km2), gaur (5.8±1.7 individuals/km2), barking deer (2.7±0.3 individuals/km2), and peafowl (7.6±0.6 individuals/km2). When the density figures were multiplied by the average weight of each prey species, biomass of 6501.8 kg/km2 was obtained
How to Cite:
Narasimmarajan, K., Mahato, S. and Parida, A., 2014. Population density and biomass of the wild prey species in a tropical deciduous forest, Central India. TAPROBANICA: The Journal of Asian Biodiversity, 6(1), pp.1–6. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/tapro.v6i1.7053
Published on
25 Jun 2014.
Peer Reviewed
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