Flora and Fauna Flashcards
Name the places in India where vultures are found? Name all the species found?
What is the main cause for their killing and the substitute of killer drug?
What are the environmental consequences of their reducing population?
- White rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis)- used to be the world’s most numerous raptor specie.
- Indian vulture (Gyps indicus)
- Slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris)
- Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis)- is less affected because of its small population, because it is exclusively mountain-dwelling.
- Eurasian griffon (Gyps fulvus)- less affected because it only winters in India and has a much smaller initial population.
Diclofenac, a veterinary NSAID, which gets accumulated in cattle. Vultures feed upon the carcasses of cattle. Diclofenac is lethal to vultures. Diclofenac has been substituted by Meloxicam which is non lethal to vultures.
Environmental consequences:-
The carcasses which were cleaned up by vultures now lie there to rot causing water contamination. Many new scavengers have taken their place such as dogs but they are not efficient as vultures are. Vultures digestive system was a dead end for the micro organisms of carcasses but dogs act as vectors for diseases such as Ribies, Anthax, plague, etc.
Which is the new organism that is added to the gram panchayat agenda?
Vultures
Dolphins in Ganges
Reasons for their reducing numbers?
South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater or river dolphin found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan which is split into two subspecies, the Ganges river dolphin (P. g. gangetica) and Indus river dolphin (P. g. minor).
Stretch of Ganges river between Sultanganj and Kahlgaon in Bihar has been declared as dolphin sanctuary and named Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary (VGDS). It is the world’s first dolphin sanctuary for the conservation of Gangetic Dolphin P. Gangeticus.
Reason- the decrease in river depth and appearance of sand bars dividing the river course into smaller segments.
Name the National Aquatic Animal.
Dolphins of Ganga and Indus
Indian Ganges turtle
Threat and their medicinal value?
Indian flapshell turtle (Lissemys punctata) is a freshwater species of turtle found in South Asia. The “flap-shelled” name stems from the presence of femoral flaps located on the plastron. It has been introduced to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also found in the desert ponds of Rajasthan, where hundreds are killed every year during the dry summers. Others- Nepal, China, Pakistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Burma (Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers).
Added to Appendix II of CITES
Threat- construction of dams and barrages, cultivation along river banks, and pollution; it has more meat than other turtle specie and its eggs are used as food source.
Medical Value- in China used to treat certain types of skin diseases. In India, the shell is used to make a remedy believed to be a medicine for tuberculosis.
Japanese Eel
has been put in endangered list by IUCN.
Tamil Nadu’s state animal?
Nilgiri Tahr
Blue Mormon butterfly
Name the first state in India to state a State Butterfly?
- A large swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polymnestor) found only in SriLanka and India (mainly restricted to the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, South India and coastal belts; may occasionally be spotted in the Maharashtrian mainland between Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra).
- it’s the second largest butterfly found in India, just smaller than the southern birdwing. It has exquisite velvet-like black wings with bright blue spots.
-most common in heavy rainfall areas, such as evergreen forests. Also common in deciduous forests and wooded urban areas, primarily due to the cultivation of its host plants, i.e. the Citrus species.
Black Necked Crane
A unique migratory specie found in the Himalayan high altitude wetlands.
During the previous Conferences of Party meet, the MoEF, WWF-India, Wetlands International and Bombay Natural History Society jointly organised a side event on Black-necked Crane urging the range States for regional cooperation for its conservation.
Fish specie that is reducing numbers of Major Indian Carps and Minor Indian Carps in river Krishna.
Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus) which were primarily found in rivers of Western Africa and Middle East. The Thilapia is the most traded fish food internationally.
Black headed ibis
Surajpur (near Delhi) wetland bird,
It’s in IUCN red list of threatened species
New termite specie Chirahariteae
A new termite species, Glyptotermes Chiraharitae, has been discovered at Kakkayam in the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The species are named ‘Chiraharitae’, after the tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, where the termite was spotted. The flying adults of this species are approximately 10 mm long, while the soldiers are around 9.5 mm long.
A new termite species, Glyptotermes Chiraharitae, has been discovered at Kakkayam in the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The species are named ‘Chiraharitae’, after the tropical evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, where the termite was spotted. The flying adults of this species are approximately 10 mm long, while the soldiers are around 9.5 mm long.
Amina Poovoli and K. Rajmohana, Senior Scientists, Zoological Survey of India, who discovered the species, said winged adults, soldiers, and immature nymphs termed ‘pseudergates’, which could develop into winged adults, were spotted in a termite colony at Kakkayam. The research paper describing the new species was published last week in Zoosystema, the journal of Natural History Museum, Paris.
They said termites were of three types — dry wood, damp wood, and subterranean. The new species are of the damp wood category, and they infest parts of woods with high moisture content, the decaying or rotting areas in particular. They are exclusively wood dwelling and do not require any contact with soil.
Its relatives are known to attack mango, sal, banyan trees, Rhododendron, Artocarpus, silver oak, and jamun trees. There are reports that its related species are serious pests of tea bushes in Sri Lanka and southeast Asia.
The only bison breeding place in India
Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary in Tripura
Rusty spotted cat
The smallest cat in India is found in western and eastern ghat forests. It’s a near endangered specie. It can be worlds smallest cat but competes with African black footed cat for the status.
