v6i1.120

Submitted date: 10 September 2012
Accepted date: 25 February 2013
Published date: 29 June 2014
Pp. 1–6, Pl. 1.

POPULATION DENSITY AND BIOMASS OF THE WILD PREY SPECIES IN A TROPICAL DECIDUOUS FOREST, CENTRAL INDIA

Kannadasan Narasimmarajan*, Subhasis Mahato & Abinash Parida
*Corresponding author. E-mail: wildlife9protect@gmail.com

Abstract
For proper management of a wildlife reserve, it is essential to estimate density and biomass of herbivores that in turn determine the density of carnivores. We estimated the population density and biomass of three ungulates and two other species in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, Central India. The study was conducted from September 2010 to April 2011. We used distance sampling to estimate the population density of wild prey species. The 225km2 intensive study area was found to have high prey species density (69.5±8.3 individuals/km2), with gray langur being the abundant prey species (42.9±7.2 individuals/km2), followed by sambar (10.5±3.5 individuals/km2), gaur (5.8±1.7 individuals/km2), barking deer (2.7±0.3 individuals/km2), and peafowl (7.6±0.6 individuals/km2). When the density figures were multiplied by the average weight of each prey species, biomass of 6501.8 kg/km2 was obtained.

Key words : Abundance; Anthropogenic; Carnivore; Gugamal National Park; Melghat Tiger Reserve

Section Editor: Lee E. Harding