Ethnozoology of Galo tribe with special reference to edible insects in Arunachal Pradesh

81-83The paper explored the diversity of edible insects, collection patterns and temporal availability in the West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India. The district is inhabited by the Galo, Adi, Memba and Khamba tribes. However, the study only explored the ethnozoology of Galo tribe. The study reveals that the community consumed a total of 12 species belonging majorly to Hymenopterans and Hemipteran order, excluding 4 unidentified species belonging to 10 genera and 8 families. Consumptions of insects showed that 61.11% are at larval stage followed by mature (16.67%), and 11.11% of adult and hive, respectively. Most of the insects are available in between August to September months

Indigenous techniques of catching mudskipper in Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts, Gujarat

533-538Indigenous fishing techniques for catching the mudskipper in Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat coast were investigated during 2014-15. The complexities of its muddy habitat and behaviour characteristics make it difficult to catch the mudskipper. Documentation on the fishing methods for catching the mudskipper is not available. This paper describes the two techniques namely- wire mesh technique and noose trap technique employed traditionally by the ethnic communities of fishermen to catch the mudskipper, encountered during the course of the survey. Wire mesh technique is used by fisher folk of Bhavnagar district whereas noose traps technique used by fisher folk of Bharuch district. Fisher folk of these two districts are able to earn their livelihood by these indigenous techniques in the areas which are known for low productivity of marine fishes due to their geomorphological features. Habitat destruction due to growing salt pan activities and industrial set up which leads to continuous shrinking of the mudflats used by fisher folk is the major concern for future livelihood aspects of the fisher folk of these districts

Pangolins in global camera trap data: Implications for ecological monitoring

Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely non-discriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts