Way Back Home - Butterfly Roadkills

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This is a note on the intensity of butterfly roadkills that occur during the migration season in Wayanad district, Kerala, India.

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Way Back Home - Butterfly Roadkills
R. Roshnath and Vivek Philp Cyriac*
During a routine walk from our college the authors noticed many butterflies killed on the road during the months of October and November 2013, a period of peak butterfly migratory season . This was from the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode to Vythiri, a small village in the western border of Wayanad District, Kerala on the Calicut Mysore highway (NH212). The number of butterflies killed on the roads seemed to greatly increase during the last week of October, which inspired us to count the number of road-killed butterflies in order to have a preliminary assessment of the level of road mortality. The distance between Vythiri and the college is about 1.5km with patches of human habitations, coffee plantations and reed breaks on both sides of the road. The Vythiri stream also runs parallel along the road. On 29th Oct 2013, we collected nearly 206 butterflies hit by vehicles from both sides of the road. Dead butterflies were collected in a ziplock bags and a total of nine species were identified; they belong to two families viz., Nymphalidae and Papilionidae. Among the two families Nymphalidae (Crows and tigers) represent the maximum numbers. In terms of species, Blue tigers (Tirumala septentrionis) constituted the highest number (n=178). Many host plant Crotalaria retusa of blue tigers were located near roadsides, hence increased mortality rate. Other species recorded were Double Banded Crow (Euploea sylvester), Common Crow (Euploea core), Blue Bottle (Graphium sarpedon), Great Egg fly (Hyplolimnas bolina), Common Mormon (Papilio polytes), Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor), Common Baron (Euthalia

Figure 1: Dead butterflies collected from the 1.5 km stretch of road between Pookode and Vythiri, Wayanad District, Kerala

Figure 2: A dead Double Banded Crow road kill

aconthea) and Common Five-ring (Ypthima baldus) (Table.1). The observations were made during the peak butterfly migratory season. Blue tigers are known to migrate from North-east to South-west India during September-November months. Kunte (2005) reported peak butterfly activity between October to January/February at Nilgiris and Anamalai Hills of Southern Western Ghats. In south India

Blue tiger (Tirumala limniace), Dark blue tiger (T. septentrionis) and the Common Indian crow (Euploea core) are some of the most prevalent migrant butterflies (George, 2011). Migration is a big challenge to every creature.

* Center for Wildlife Studies, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode. Email: [email protected]

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Table1: List of Butterfly species that were found dead on the 1.5km stretch of road between Pookode and Vythiri.

Family

Scientific name

Nymphalidae Tirumala septentrionis Euploea sylvester Euploea core Euthalia aconthea Hyplolimnas bolina Ypthima baldus Papilionidae

Common name Dead sp. Blue Tiger 178 Double Banded Crow Common Crow Common Baron Great Egg Fly 12 8 1 1 1 1 1 3 206

Common Fivering Papilio polytes Common Mormon Papilio polymnestor Blue Mormon Graphium sarpedon Blue Bottle

Total

During its course many struggle, lose their life, get predated and only the fittest survive to offer next generation. In addition to natural mortality many anthropogenic effects also hinder the migration such as, forest fragmentation, construction of roads, pollution and pesticides. Roads have pronounced ecological effect on animal movement (Forman and Alexandra, 1998). Increase in road and vehicle have determinable influence on animals that cross roads (Seshadri et al., 2009). Road kills of civets, mongoose and snakes are common in the Wayanad region. During rainy season hundreds of frogs are killed on the stretch of road between Pookode and Vythiri. Road mortality studies in Western Ghats have reported that amphibians are the most affected by vehicular traffic followed by reptiles, mammals and birds (Baskaran and Boominathan, 2010). Most studies on road kills are focused on more charismatic animals such as large mammals, reptiles, birds and amphibians. Where size does matter, larger animals get noticed easily and in the case of enigmatic animals such as the big cats, it may even raise public concerns. There are studies on road kills of large carnivores and other mammals (Kumara et al., 2000; Gubbi, 2004) and few assessment of road killed herpetofauna (Gokula, 1997; Vijayakumar et al., 2001; Das et al., 2007; Seshadri et al., 2009; Bhupathy et al.,2011). But insects such as butterflies are not paid much attention. Rao and Girish (2007), in their study of road-killed insects in the Bandipur National Park, found a high mortality of dragonflies followed by butterflies and other insects and suggested that butterflies may be considered as a flagship taxon to assess the insect casualties in a much broader road-ecology perspective.

There are many less charismatic invertebrates like millipedes, centipedes, beetles, snails and many other insects which have an immense role in an ecosystem that are being killed on roads daily. However, the levels of road mortality and its impact on the insect fauna has not been sufficiently documented. Butterflies play an important role in the ecosystem; as pollinators, useful in studies of population and community ecology, indicators of healthy ecosystem, study of changes in microclimates and habitats (Pollard, 1991; Kremen, 1992). Dragonflies and some butterflies are known to be attracted to open habitats, forest clearings (Kunte 1997; Kunte et al., 1999) and thus roads being an open area attracts these insects which results in higher mortality (Rao and Girish 2007). A possible method to minimize the effect of roads on migrating butterflies would be through improving tree cover on roadsides to reduce butterfly movement towards roads. However, further detailed studies on such aspects can help better manage and reduce incidences of road mortality. Roads are an integral part of our development. However, they can have detrimental effects on our faunal diversity. The present study reveals that in only a small portion (1.5km) of the NH212 road there is high incidence of butterfly mortally. Also the samples that were collected in the evening hours might have been scavenged by birds and other animals. Hence, this data just exemplifies the fraction of butterflies that are killed on road during the migration period and also signifies the impact of roads on small invertebrates. Further scientific studies on the subject can help assess the impact of vehicular traffic on insect populations and also help mitigate the problem. References Baskaran, N and Boominathan, D (2010). Road kill of animals by highway traffic in the tropical forest of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, southern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(3): 753-759. Bhupathy, S.,Srinivas, G., Kumar, N.S., Karthik,T. and Madhivanan, A (2011). Herpetofaunal Mortality due to Vehicular Traffic in The Western Ghats, India: A Case Study. Herpetotropicos5(2):119-126. Das, A., Ahmed,M.F., Lahkar, B.P. and Sharma, P (2007). A preliminary report of reptilian mortality on road due to vehicular movement near Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Zoos’ Print Journal 22(7): 2742–2744. Forman, T. T. R. and Alexandra, L. E (1998). Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics29: 207-231.

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George Mathew (2011).A Handbook on the Butterflies of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. KFRI Research Report No. 398. Gokula, V (1997). Impact of vehicular traffic on snakes in Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. Cobra 27: 26. Gubbi, S (2004). Roads to hell. Sanctuary Asia, October 2004, 50–53. Kremen, C. (1992).Assessing the indicator properties of species assemblages for natural areas monitoring. Ecological Applications 2: 203-217. Kumara, H. N., Sharma, A. K., Kumar, A. and Singh, M. (2000) .Road kills of wild fauna in Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, Western Ghats, India: Implications for management. Biosphere Conservation 3:41–47. Kunte, K (1997). Seasonal patterns in butterfly abundance and species diversity in four tropical habitats in northern Western Ghats. Journal of Bioscience. 22, 593–603. Kunte, K (2005).Species composition, sex-ratios and movement patterns in Danaine butterfly migrations in southern India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 102(3): 280-286.

Kunte, K., Joglekar, A., Utkarsh, G. and Padmanabhan, P (1999). Patterns of butterfly, bird and tree diversity in the Western Ghats. Current. Science.77, 577–586. Pollard, !. (1991).Monitoring butterfly numbers: p. 87. In: Goldsmith, F.B. (ed.). Monitoring for Conservation and Ecology, Chapman and Hall, London. Rao, R.S.P and Girish, M.K.S (2007). Road kills: Assessing insect casualties using flagship taxon Current Science, 92 (6): 25. Seshadri, K.S., A. Yadav and Gururaja, K.V (2009). Road kills of amphibians in different land use areas from Sharavathi river basin, central Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(11): 549-552. Vijayakumar,S.P., Vasudevan, K. and Ishwar, N.M.( 2001).Herpetofaunal mortality on roads in Anamalai hills, Southern western Ghats. Hamadryad 26(2):253-260

Announcement

CBSG Facilitation Training 2014
CBSG will be conducting a Facilitation and Communication Skills Training Course 10-13 March 2014, hosted by the St. Louis Zoo in St. Louis, Missouri. The course is being co-organized by CBSG, CBSG North America, and the St. Louis Zoo. Course Description: This four-day interactive course will provide conservation program managers with an opportunity to learn and practice essential facilitation skills, including decision making, team formation and management, conflict resolution, communication skills, consensus building, and cross-cultural sensitivity. The course will include lectures, case studies, and significant time to practice facilitation skills. This course is being hosted by the St. Louis Zoo and co-organized by CBSG, CBSG North America, and the St. Louis Zoo. Dates: This course will be held March 10 – 13, 2014, at the St. Louis Zoo. Participants should plan to arrive on the evening of 9 March. The course will finish at 5:00 pm on Mar. 13. Participants are asked to remain through the end of the course, and plan their travel schedules accordingly. More Information and Registration Forms For more information about the course contact Elizabeth at [email protected]. Registration forms can be found at this link: Facilitation Training Registration Form (www.cbsg.org/sites/cbsg.org/files/ Facilitation%20and%20Skills%20Course%20Registration%20Form_March.docx)

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