Northern Treeshrew in Southern Mizoram, India

This post shares a recent note of mine from JBNHS 108 (2): 

North eastern India comprising the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura forms a part of a rich biogeographic unit and is among the biodiversity 'Hotspots' of the world (Choudhury 1999, Myers  et al. 2000, Ved & Lalramnuna 2008). Formerly referred to as Lushai Hills of southern Assam (Choudhury 2008), Mizoram is situated between 21.58 N - 24.35 N and 91.15 E - 93.29 E covering an area of 21,081 sq kms (Anonymous 2006). In broad terms, the forests of Mizoram are classified as ‘Cachar Tropical Evergreen (IB/C3)’ and ‘Cachar Semi Evergreen (2B/C2)’ (Champion & Seth 1964). Saiha in extreme south Mizoram shares a boundary with Lawngtlai to its north. Some of the best rainforest of north-east India are found in southern Mizoram, covering parts of the districts of Lawngtlai and Saiha (Choudhury 2006).

Treeshrews are entirely confined to South and Southeast Asia, and the latter region has the largest number of species. Of the three species found in South Asia, two are confined to the mainland, namely the Madras Treeshrew (Ananthana ellioti Waterhouse 1849) in peninsular India and the Northern Treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri Wagner 1841) in north-east India extending into Myanmar (Oommen and Shanker 2008). I here report two recent reports of the Northern Treeshrew from southern Mizoram.

I saw a freshly dead Northern Treeshrew at Tuipang (22º 18' 55.728'' N; 93º 1' 35.112'' E) the headquarters of Tuipang block in Saiha district, on June 17, 2008. The shrew had been caught in a trap set in the jhum (shifting cultivation) fields; was dead when I saw it. These non-baited traps, known as ‘mangkhawng’, are made using small logs and placed on the edge of crop fields (Ved and Lalramnuna 2008). This particular trap that caught the shrew was c. 2.0 – 2.5 km from the town in a mo­saic of old, new, and current shifting cultivation plots with some village supply and safety reserves.

I saw another shrew at our office  (22º 29' 15.4674'' N; 92º 59' 8.16'' E)  on September 24, 2009, at 15:00 hrs. It had stopped raining and the sky had cleared. The treeshrew moved around young mango trees and shrubs about 3 m from the wall of our office in the middle of a primarily residential locality at Saiha district headquarters. I saw it pushing the plastic trash that lay around, presumably in search of food, and was also able to photograph it. I understand this is the only confirmed photographic record of the species in the wild from southern Mizoram.

Zonunmawia and Pradhan (2004) and Anon. (2006) did not list it. However the treeshrew has been described in Reginald Lorrain’s Seminal Mara (local language in Saiha) dictionary as ‘Zyu-si - shrew mouse’ (Lorrain 1912) implying its presence in the landscape.

References.

Anon. (2006): Mizoram Forest 2006. Department of Environment and Forests, Aizawl, Mizoram.  93 pp.

Champion, H. & S. K. Seth. (1964): A revised survey of the forest types of India. Forest Research Institutes and Colleges, Dehra Dun. 404 pp.

Choudhury, A. U. (1999): Mustelids, viverrids, and herpestids of northeastern India. ENVIS Bulletin: Wildlife and Protected Areas. 2(2): 43–47.

Choudhury, A. U. (2006): The distribution and status of Hoolock Gibbon, Hoolock Hoolock in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland in north east India. Primate Conservation 2006 (20): 79–87.

Choudhury A. U. (2008): A Pocket Guide to the Birds of Mizoram.  Gibbon Books, Guwahati. 122 pp.

Lorrain R. (1912): 5 Years in Unknown Jungles. Lakher Pioneer Mission. London. 264 pp.

Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., da Fonseca, G. A. B. & Kent, J. (2000): Biodiversity hotpots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853 – 858.

Oommen, M. A., K. Shanker, (2008): Ecology and Behaivour of an endemic Treeshrew Tupaia Nicobarica Zelebor 1869 on Great Nicobar Island, India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 105(1) : 55 – 63.

Ved, N., & S, Lalramnuna. (2008): Yellow bellied Weasel Mustela kathiah records from Mizoram,India. Small Carnivore Conservation 2008 (39) : 35 - 36.

Zonunmawia, A., & Pradhan, N. (2004): Mizoram and its wildlife. Center for Environment Protection, Aizawl. 69 pp.

Acknowledgements.

I am indebted to Kashmira Kakati, Aparajita Datta and Meera Oommen for identification with help of species and sharing of material.  I thank S Lalramnuna for the help at Tuipang and more importantly for being with me.  Mr. Simon is acknowledged for the wonderful place that houses our home and office. I thank Samrakshan Trust the organization I was then associated with.

Thanking BNHS.