Agasthya 6.1 Snippets

Snippets:
On 29th of January, a lone brown palm civet was sighted by Dr Ganesh, Prashant, Seshadri and Chian while doing phenology in a forest corridor in Nalmukh. The animal was observed to be feeding on the flowers of cullenia tree for over an hour giving ample opportunity for the entire team to make some footage and documentation. The animal bore injury marks on its face and hind leg.

On the same evening, the team laid eyes on the elusive rusty spotted cat while returning to Manimuthar.

A grey shrike was sighted by Arun,a volunteer, during the waterfowl census.

A new heronry was recorded by the Wetland Census team at Mannur tank

Publications:
H C Chetana and T Ganesh. 2012. Importance of shade trees (Grevillea robusta) in the dispersal of forest tree species in managed tea plantations of southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 28:187-197

Timothy T. Caughlin, T. Ganesh and Margaret D. Lowman. 2012. Sacred fig trees promote frugivore visitation and tree seedling abundance in South India. Current Science, Vol. 102, No. 6. 918-922.

Grants recieved:
K S Seshadri and Allwin Jesudasan received a grant of Rs 1,80,000 from the Herpetological Conservation Research Fund, MCBT to study the ‘ Ecological and economic benefits of anurans to paddy agriculture in south India’.

M Mathivanan received a grant of $2800 from Bat Conservation International for his study, ‘Temples as potential roosts for bats in south India: Implications for conservation’.