Wild Ungulates in A Human Dominated Landscape: Their Population Structure, Density and Biomass in Western India

Dhawal Mehta, V. C. Soni

Abstract


The population structure, density and biomass of three species of ungulates-Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus), Wild Pig (Sus scrofa) and Chinkara (Gazella bennetti) were studied in ten grasslands of Central Saurashtra, Western India during 2011-12 using the distance sampling method. The total transect length involving all the study sites was 38.44 km which was walked for a total of 16 times resulting in a sampling effort of 615.04 km. The mean group size at all the sites for Nilgai, Wild Pig and Chinkara were 5.403±0.95 (SE), 7±0.63 (SE) and 5.4±0.63 (SE) respectively. Average estimated densities of 40.52 Nilgai km-2, 50.58 Wild Pig km-2 and 1.64 Chinkara km-2 were recorded from all sites. The sex ratios were usually biased towards females except in some cases in Nilgai. The Nilgai and Chinkara were usually seen to be solitary or form small herds while Wild Pigs were more gregarious forming herds of more than 6 individuals. The group size in all three species did not vary between sites and between seasons. The average wild ungulate biomass at all the studied grassland sites was computed to be 4569.95 kg km-2.

Keywords


Saurashtra; Grassland; Group Size; Line Transect; Nilgai; Wild Pig; Chinkara

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