by Narasimmarajan
On
12.02.2012 at 09.00am, during the Long-tailed macaque survey in Great Nicobar Island, I came
across a pair of Nicobar Treeshrew on Great Nicobar Island on the East-Coast Road
about 28 km from Campbell Bay (6°53’39.3”N;
93°53’49.5”E). The pair was seen on a palm tree in the rainforest of the
lower canopy on the edge of a ravine through which a perennial mountain stream was
flowing although author (KN) photographed one individual. The pair was quite
active and the two members were seen chasing each other. They were observed walking
over branches and were seen preferably keeping to the shady parts and were not observed
to leap. They were seen searching food and these two soon disappeared as they
moved away to another tree. The species was seen twice again during our entire survey
along a total line transect walk of 215 km on this island. I did not specifically
search for it, since I was concentrating on Long-tailed macaque survey. It is
likely that we could have overlooked some Treeshrews.
Description:
The
Nicobar Treeshrew Tupaia nicobarica
(Zelebor, 1869) (Order: Scandentia, Family: Tupaiidae, Subfamily: Tupainae), is
a small arboreal mammal species endemic to India and its distribution is restricted
to Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar islands. Since entry to
Nicobar Islands is restricted and is allowed only after tedious formal
permissions from government authorities, and considering the logistics involved, any recent records of poorly known, endemic and endangered species like Nicobar Treeshrew are the valuable documents. In this note, I report the recent photographic observations of this species, taken in its wild natural habitat on Great Nicobar Island.
No comments:
Post a Comment