Predation by Wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) on Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) in the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, Nannaj, Maharashtra, India

Satish Kumar, Asad R Rahmani

Abstract


Some aspects of predation on blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) by wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) were studied in the GreatIndian Bustard Sanctuary from 1991 to 1994. For each kill, data were collected on (a) sex and age, (b) habitataround kill sites, (c) biomass left unconsumed by wolves, (d) distance of kills from the den(s), Sanctuary boundaryand the nearest thick vegetation cover. The wolves largely preyed on old and injured blackbuck and had a strongselection for males (U=42, P=0.01, Mann-Whitney U test). On an average, wolves made a kill every 3.65 daysduring winter (S.E.=0.58, n=19) and 2.1 days (S.E.=0.7, n=10) during summer. The consumption rate was founds to be 1 kg/wolf/day and it was not correlated with the pack size (r =0.16, P=0.07). The wolves depended largelyon blackbuck for food requirement during their non-breeding period and on livestock during denning or breedingperiod. The maximum number of kills were located within 4 m of distance from vegetative cover (34%, n=26). Thedistribution of kills differed significantly between habitats and the maximum number of kills were found ingrasslands (37%), followed by scrubland (23%), plantations (21%) and grazing land (19%). The wolves killedblackbuck irrespective of the location of dens (D=0.246, P=0.462, Two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Onlytwo instances of food caching by wolves were recorded during the study period. Blackbuck used predator avoidancestrategies such as encirclement of herds by large males with longest horns to threaten wolves, ground stumping,flashing tail while running, galloping as high as possible, blowing out air from the nostrils briskly and producing agrunting sound to alarm the remaining individuals of the group. On an average, predation by wolves removed 4%of the total biomass of blackbuck available to them in the Sanctuary and 3.5% when 10% of the biomass of killswas assumed to remain unutilised by them. They consumed 25 to 30 individuals of blackbuck annually in theSanctuary.

Keywords


Indian Wolf, Canis lupus pallipes, Blackbuck, Antilope cervicapra, Predation, Hunting, Kill rate, Consumption Rate, Kill Utilisation, Biomass Consumption, Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary

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