Abstract
Latrine sites are the places used for urination and defecation, which mostly act as a signaling agent for multiple purposes like territorial marking, confrontation with extruders or potential predators, delivering different inter and intra-communication messages. To understand latrine site visit pattern, a single camera trap was deployed for 91 trap nights at the latrine site of Large Indian Civet during the months of December 2016 and February & March 2017. Latrine site was found under the tree with abundant crown cover and bushes. At least two individuals were found to be using a single latrine site in an irregular manner between 1800 h and 0600 h with higher activity between 1800 h and 2300 h. Our results indicated an irregular latrine site visit pattern, hence similar studies with a robust research design in larger areas are required to understand specific latrine use patterns.
Highlights
The Large Indian Civet Viverra zibetha is a widespread species and has been recorded up to 2,420 m in Nepal (Appel et al 2013), and up to 3,080 m in India (Khatiwara & Srivastava 2014)
We identified the latrine site of the Large Indian Civet during mammalian profile survey within Banpale forest, a legal asset of Institute of Forestry (IOF), which mainly includes the natural Schima-Castanopsis forest; having species of Dalbergia, Albezia, Michelia, and Alnus
Monitoring of the latrine site for three months yielded a total of 215 videos and 1,017 camera trap images during the effort of 91 camera trap nights
Summary
The Large Indian Civet Viverra zibetha is a widespread species and has been recorded up to 2,420 m in Nepal (Appel et al 2013), and up to 3,080 m in India (Khatiwara & Srivastava 2014). Due to its wide distribution across a variety of habitats, it is listed as Least Concern (LC) in IUCN Red List (Timmins et al 2016). It is a ground dwelling (Lekagul & McNeely 1977; Duckworth 1997) solitary, nocturnal animal; with occasional records at daytime We identified the latrine site of the Large Indian Civet during mammalian profile survey within Banpale forest, a legal asset of IOF, which mainly includes the natural Schima-Castanopsis forest; having species of Dalbergia, Albezia, Michelia, and Alnus. Agricultural crops, vegetables, and banana gardens were found around the study site
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