1. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES STUMPTAILED MACAQUE MACACA ARCTOIDES (GEOFFROY) IN MANIPUR During a visit to Manipur in April 1988 I came cally collected and kept in a separate enclosure, had been across three adult male stump-tailed macaques Macaca wrongly identified as stumptailed macaques. This is the arctoide2s. in the small zoo near Imphal city. All the three first specific record of the stumptailed macaque in had been reportedly collected from the forests of Manipur. The main stronghold of the species is perhaps Churachandpurdistrict(23°57’N to 24°40’N, and 93°0’E the Western Hills along the Assam-Manipur border. to 93°50’ E). They had not been identified, and about a dozen Assamese macaques Macaca assamensis also lo- August 8, 1989 ANWARUDDIN CHOUDHURY , INTERACTION BETWEEN A MALE TIGER PANTHERA TIGRIS AND HIS CUBS IN BANDHAVGARH NATIONAL PARK, MADHYAPRADESH The following observations were made on a male cubs were unwilling to go past the elephant. After a few tigerPanthera tigris Banka, a tigress, Sita, and their cubs minutes Banka called louder and gruffer than before and in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, over a this timewemovedtheelephantaway whereuponSitaand period of30 months. the cubs went to the kill immediately. Banka was seen mating with Sita on 28 May 1986, By mid-February 1988 when the cubs were ap- when she was nearly 3 years old. Three cubs were seen proximately 17 months old, Sita showed signs of disas- with Sita in November 1986 and it is assumed that they sociatingherselffromthecubsandwasnotseenwiththem were sired by Banka. for long periods. After 23 March she was next seen with It was also determined, by plotting on a 1:50,000 themuntil 13 April.On 15 March Bankawasseenincom- scale map locations where Banka and Sita were seen or pany with the cubs and the female cub was seen playing wheretheir tracks werepositively identified, thatBanka’s with him. They would also follow him around wherever territory e3n.compassed Sita’s. he moved. All 3 tigers were seen together the whole day On 1 December 1986 when the cubs were about 10 and on 18 March 1988 they wereseen together again with m weeks old, Banka was seen at a kill along with Sita and the male cub close to Banka and the female cub 100 the cubs. Neither the cubs nor Sita showed any apprehen- away.There was no signofSitaon any oftheseoccasions. sion at the presence ofthe male. On 13 April 1988 Mr. H.S. Pabla the then Director On 25 February 1987 only two cubs were seen with of the Park, and Mr. Vivek R. Sinha, saw Sita behaving Banka and Sita at a kill. On being disturbed Sitadragged aggressively towards her cubs. The cubs were then ap- the kill andhid it under a bush on top ofahill and went to proximately 19 months old. Possibly this marked the collect the cubs. When she had brought them up, she was beginning oftheperiodleading the cubs to independence. reluctant to go to the kill because of the presence of our I wouldlike to express my thanks to DrCharlesMc- elephant which the cubs were not willing to pass. Dougal for his encouragement to write this note and to In the meantime Banka got to the kill which was Vinay Asar and family for all their help. m about 70 behind us and began making the high nasal aeun sound which seems to be both a contact call and a summons. Sita and the cubs reacted to this but again the August 30, 1989 HASHIM TYABJ1 SIGHTING OF THE RUSTY SPOTTED CAT FEUS RUBIGINOSA (GEOFFROY) IN SHOOLPANESHWAR SANCTUARY, GUJARAT The habitatofShoolpaneshwarSanctuary (21°23’N The terrain is hilly and comprises of DeccanTrap basalt. -21°59’N and 73°05’E-74o10’E) in Bharuch district, The rusty spotted cat Felis rubiginosa (Geoffroy) Gujarat, comprises of semi-moist deciduous to dry was first sighted on 26 November 1990 at 2230 hrs in a deciduous forest. The major florislic elements are teak stream bed surrounded by dense forest near Namgir vil- Tectona grandis and bamboo Dendrocalamus strictus. lage. Itwaspossible to observeitfor6.5 min. withthehelp 108 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. 88 of a 4 cell torch from about 2 to 3 m. Mandvi, Vyara and Dangs formed a continuous corridor The second sighting of the cat was made on 16 ofmoist deciduous forests in the past, there is every pos- December 1990 at 2200hrs in a small cultivated areanear sibility that this species existed in this belt, but had not the same stream. This observation was made for about 3 been identified earlier in Rajpipla forests. min. and confirmed by S.A. Chavan. Since we had the CHAVAN photographs of the rusty spotted cat (taken in Gir by S.A. Bharat Pathak) there was no possibility of misidentifica- C.D. PATEL PAWAR tion. S.V. This cat had been recorded earlier in Dangs forests N.S. GOGATE byH.H.MaharajaofBansda. AsRajpiplaforests, Sagbara, March 12, 1991 N.P. PANDYA BEHAVIOUR OF AJACKAL CANIS AURE AT ALEOPARD PANTHERA PARDUS KELL 4. > On2March 19901 satover acowkilledby aleopard state, stepping carefully, sniffing constantly up and down Panthera pardus in a ravine near Perohit-ji-ka-Talab, a and occasionally whipping around to look behind. It came m small lake near Udaipur. The blind was 15 from the kill to the kill and before feeding on it again looked carefully and I took up my position in the hide at 1530 hrs. After a around. lapse ofan hour I heard the alarm call of langur Presbytis At this moment the leopard gave a loud cough. The entellus and 15 minutes later I saw a leopard descending jackal turned round like lightning gave a low whining on my right into the ravine. Probably it noticed the un- sound and fell head over heels. Regaining its feet it tried natural construction near the kill and sensed some danger to runhard, but after taking two or three steps it again fell so it stopped about 100 m from me behind some bushes, and did acomplete somersault. Itturned foursomersaults, almost concealed from me. After some time it rose, took twice fell headlong on the ground and finally disappeared alongdetouraroundthehideandtookupitspositionabout from sight. The leopard did not even rise to its feet. As m 40 from thehide. Only the tail ofthe leopardwas visible darkness approached I left the blind and was greeted by from my position. Here the terrain was undulating and the leopard with growls. On many occasions I have seen strewnwith boulders and thick bushes. Towards my left it jackals on leopard kills but have never seen a jackal in was comparatively flat, with a few bushes. such a panic. Just before duskI spotted ajackal Canis aureus ap- proaching thekill from the left. It was in ahighly nervous April 4, 1990 RAZATEHSIN FOOD PIRACY BY JACKAL CANIS AUREUS FROM AJUNGLE CATFELIS CHAUS 5. IN CHHARI-DHANDH, KUTCH On27May 1990at 1930hours, wewereonageneral tempts, buteachtimethecatmanagedto evadeits assaults. reconnaissance of the terrain around Fulay village in Finally thejackal snatched the dead snake from the Chhari-Dhandh, Kutch, Gujarat. About 4 km west of cat, and disappeared behind the rocks. The cat too left the Fulay, we saw ajungle catFelischauspreying on asnake, area after abriefattempt to regain its prey. This is the first and whenobserved it was walking, carrying itsprey. Sud- instance of food piracy by a jackal from a jungle cat. denly, from behind an Euphorbia thicket a jackal Canis Snakes have not been listed as a food item of either the aureus emerged and sprang on the cat, in an obvious at- jungle cat or thejackal so far. tempt to snatch its prey. The cat resisted the jackal’s ef- forts for some time during which a briefstruggle ensued between the two. Thejackal chased the cat for some dis- S. ASAD AKHTAR tance and almost grabbed the prey during the first few at- November 16, 1990 J. K. TIWARI