Small mammals in the human-dominated landscape in the northern Western Ghats of India

Sameer Bajaru,Ranjit Manakadan,Amol R Kulavmode

doi:10.11609/jott.5710.13.2.17619-17629

Sameer Bajaru, Ranjit Manakadan + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5710.13.2.17619-17629

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Abstract

The Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot is under huge anthropogenic pressure, with unique flora and fauna facing severe threats from habitat fragmentation, loss, and degradation. The northern Western Ghats has been poorly studied for its small mammal fauna, hence we examined small mammals near Pune from 2014 to 2017. Live trapping was carried out in irrigated and rainfed agriculture fields, forests, and grasslands at low, mid, and high elevations. A total of 538 individuals were trapped, representing 17 species of rodents and one shrew. Most abundantly captured species were Millardia kondana (23%), Mus saxicola (19%), Suncus murinus (17%), and Mus booduga (13%). Species richness and abundance of small mammals varied across the habitats. High elevation grasslands were species-rich relative to low elevation grasslands and forests. Our observations indicate that human disturbances play a role in determining the richness and abundance of small mammals in the area, where populations are under threat from urbanization, tourism, agriculture, grazing, and fire. Habitat and species specific conservation measures need to be taken, coupled with in-depth species–habitat relationship studies, for the conservation of small mammal diversity of the northern Western Ghats.

Highlights

The Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al 2000) with remarkable variations in the distribution of plant and animal communities ranging from flowering plants (7,402 species, 38% endemic) to mammals (121 species, 12% endemics) (Nayar et al 2014; Nameer 2020)
The trapping success (10.8%) of small mammals recorded in our study area was higher than that reported in other sites in the Western Ghats, which ranged from 2.6% to 5.7% (Chandrasekar–Rao & Sunquist 1996; Prabhakar 1998; Venkataraman et al 2005; Molur & Singh 2009), except for the capture success rate of 10.6% recorded by Shanker (2003) in the Nilgiris
Unlike these sites in the Western Ghats, our study area had been modified to a high degree by humans, with natural vegetation being transformed into a grassland–agriculture dominated landscape, which could be a reason for the high trapping success

Summary

Introduction

The Western Ghats (along with Sri Lanka) is a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al 2000) with remarkable variations in the distribution of plant and animal communities ranging from flowering plants (7,402 species, 38% endemic) to mammals (121 species, 12% endemics) (Nayar et al 2014; Nameer 2020). Based on the composition of the flowering plants, the Western Ghats is divided into four zones: northern, central, southern, and Nilgiri Mountains (Subramanyam & Nayar 1974). Ecological and quantitative investigations were initiated in the 1970s, and became more systematic and numerous towards the end of the 20th century (Shanker 2003) Most of these studies were carried out in the southern Western Ghats and Nilgiri Mountains (Chandrasekar–Rao & Sunquist 1996; Prabhakar 1998; Shanker & Sukumar 1998, 1999; Mudappa et al 2001; Kumar et al 2002; Shanker 2003; Venkataraman et al 2005; Molur & Singh 2009; Ramchandran 2013)

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