Podoces
Volume:13 Issue: 2, 2018

We used line transect method to estimate the density of the Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus and Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha, India during May and November 2016. Each forest beat was taken as sampling unit. Transect lines of 2km distance laid in the intensive study area. Each transect was covered three times (total 738km) during pre-monsoon (May) and post-monsoon (November) of 2016. Transects were walked early in the morning in the first two hours after the sunrise when usually birds are most active. Totally 75 transect lines were covered in a random sampling method.

This study compares the chick growth patterns of the Bridled Tern (Sterna anaethetus), Greater Crested Tern (S. bergii) and Lesser Crested Tern (S. bengalensis) on Nakhilu Island, Persian Gulf, Iran in 2010 and 2011. Chicks at different ages and adults were captured and their growth parameters were measured at one-week intervals. Body weight, wing, tail, bill, tarsus and head to bill lengths of chicks measured on weekly basis were significantly different for all these three species (P<0.01). The average ratio of the fledging weight to the adult weight was 1.01 for Bridled Tern, 0.85 for Lesser Crested Tern and 0.96 for Greater Crested Tern. Regarding the complex effect of growth parameters, the growth rate of the Bridled Tern has discriminately been increased from the third week while for the Greater and Lesser Crested terns it increased from the fourth week. However, adults and the last week chicks had not showed significant difference of growth parameters (P>0.05). The study result supports the hypothesis that the growth rate represents an optimum balance between the low energy requirements and short development period of terns.