Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz
Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Sympatric species, Resource partitioning, Diet, Ranging, Forest strata use, Time allocation.
Sylhet Forest Division of Bangladesh.
Conservation and Biodiversity
Study area The West Bhanugach Forest Reserve (240 32' N and 910 47' E; altitude 22 m) is situated in the north-east of the Moulavi Bazar Forest Range of Sylhet Forest Division of Bangladesh. The forest is covering an area of 2,738 ha composed of three forest beats - Lawachara, Kalacharaand, and Chawtali. Lawacharawas declared as a National Park in 1996. The undulating area with slopes has hillocks, locally called Tila, ranging from 10 to 50 metres and scattered in the forest. Numerous streams flow through the forest. The south-east, south, and east sides are bordered by tea gardens and the west by coffee plantation. A rail road and a metalled road cross the forest from east to west. Numerous trails and tracks are found within the forest, created by the local people for collecting wood from the forest. This forest is isolated from the nearest forest by about 10 km, because of surrounding plantations of tea, coffee, and the cultivation of rice. There are three tribal villages on the periphery. The tribals (Khasia) cultivate betel, collect fuel wood, and hunt inside the forest. Most of the West Bhanugach Forest Reserve was clear-felled, and then planted in different blocks since the 1920s by the Forest Department. The blocks differ in size and each block was planted with a particular plant species, most of which are timber yielding and commercially important. A mixture of both evergreen and deciduous species was planted by the Forest Department, but the majority of plant species found in this forest have grown naturally during the last 75 years or so (Feeroz & Islam 2000). At present, the number of naturally-grown trees is higher than the planted trees; hence it is very difficult to categorise West Bhanugach Forest Reserve as any one recognised forest type. It is not very markedly evergreen, but the majority of the small trees are evergreen and most of the tall trees are deciduous(Feeroz 1999). A total of 112 plant species was identified, of which 78 are forest tree species and 21 are vines, lianas, stranglers, and seasonally-cultivated crops; thirteen tree species were recorded from the human settlement and beside the railroad. Tree density in the study area was 271 trees/ha (Feeroz 1999). The study site shows the general weather conditions of Bangladesh, but it is the coldest place in the country. Mean monthly temperature varied, highest in August (mean = 32.2o C) and lowest in January (mean = 11.7o C). The monthly humidity recorded in the study site varied from month to month (mean = 82.2, SD = ± 8.1), the highest in September (86.8 %) and lowest in March (71.2%). Rainfall in winter seasons, (December to February), was the lowest and pre-monsoon (March-May) received more rain than post-monsoon (October-November), while the monsoon, lasting from June to September, received maximum rainfall. Data collection Major data used in this paper were from the field work conducted between May 1996 and September 1997 (Feeroz 1999), but partial data were also used from (Feeroz 1991; Feeroz 2001; Feeroz 2004; Feeroz et al. 1994). Following Ross et al. (1993), I estimated the population density of the primate community in the study area from a thorough survey of the total area (27 km2 ), by using all the groups that were recorded during the whole study period. A transect census was also conducted, but the density results generated underestimated the actual density; thus, these were used only for extra animal observations. Using the average body weight of adult males and females and multiplying it by the respective individual density calculated the biomass of each species. Metabolic biomass was calculated by considering 0.75 of body weight, as in (Eisenberg et al. 1979; Kohlhaas 1988; Pontes 1997). This allows for 50 % of the group being immature, thus markedly lowering group weight. Adult body weights for these species are taken from the literature M. mulatta (Napier & Napier 1967); M. n. leonine : (Fooden 1975), T. pileata : (Stanford 1989); and H. hoolock: (Chivers 1977). The relation between group density, body weight, biomass, individual density, mean group size, and home range size were analysed by the simple regression model: log D = log A+b log w and logarithmic transformation of both axes to fit the linear model, which is equivalent to the power function: D = aWb (Sokal & Rohlf 1981).
Proceedings of the International Conference on Biodiversity – Present State, Problems and Prospects of its Conservation January 8-10, 2011 University of Chittgaong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
Report/Proceedings