Abstract
Papikonda National Park covering an area of 1,012km2 holds high conservation value as the only national park in the geographically vast northern Eastern Ghats. The tropical moist deciduous forests support species assemblages characteristic of the Eastern Ghats. We conducted the first comprehensive assessment of the mammal diversity in Papikonda National Park using camera traps, sign surveys and community interviews between October 2014 and March 2015, combined with a comprehensive literature review of research articles, field guides and IUCN species range reports. A total of 55 species from 46 genera belonging to 24 families were enumerated. There was a high diversity of carnivores (15 species), followed by chiropterans (13 species) and rodents (11 species).
Highlights
We provide the first comprehensive and updated checklist of mammals for the Papikonda National Park (PNP)
A total of 118km2 of forests in PNP was surveyed through 271 camera trap locations resulting in a survey effort of 19,512 trap hours
We recorded 23 species of mammals from 21 genera which were captured in 400 camera trap captures and through sign surveys (Images 1–21)
Summary
The Eastern Ghats hill ranges (77.36–85.33 E & 11.50–21.00 N) stretch from the Mahanadi River valley in Odisha in the north to the Sirumalai Hills in Tamil Nadu in the south. The hills extend roughly parallel to India’s east coast stretching over 1,600km, and are spread over an area in excess of 75,000km (Mahapatra et al 2013; Pragasan 2014) The Eastern Ghats are characterized by their division into a number of distinct hill regions by several large rivers such as the Godavari (1,465km), Krishna (1,400km) and Cauvery (800km) flowing east into the Bay of Bengal (Mani 2012).
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