STUDY ON VARIATION IN HABITAT USE OF THE COTTON PYGMY-GOOSE IN KADAMANI WETLAND, ASSAM, INDIASanjib UpadhyayaAbstract The Kadamani wetland, a perennial wetland is an important biodiversity site of Assam, India with an area of 15 hectares. The habits of the Cotton Pygmy-goose (CPG), Nettapus coromandelianus coromandelianus Gmelin and its habitat use were studied previously during June 2012 to August 2013 and recently during June 2021 to August 2022 at the Kadamani wetlands of Assam from five different zones by observational scan and ad libitum methods. Altogether twenty two and fourteen birds were encountered respectively, and tracked to study their habit during all the three sessions of a day, i. e. morning, day and dusk with a continuous 15-20 minutes observation (N=30, N=16). The study showed a special pattern of habitat use during the days in both the periods of study. CPGs that were tracked at least twice were included for summarizing the daily habitat use (N= 22 and 14 birds; 80 + 31 locations). In the morning session, during 2012-13, the zone-wise habitat use was found to be 4% (east), 7% (west), 12% (central), 12% (north) and 65% (south); while during 2021-22 the frequency were found to be 2%, 10%, 27% 12% and 49% respectively. Zone-wise maximum habitat use was found to be a total of 65% of time in south zone in the morning session, while in the day it was 43% of the time in the central zone and 44% in the south zone during dusk. Again, there is distinct seasonal variation was observed during the two study periods, i.e., in 2012-13 and 2021-22. The goose preferred to feed in the wetland during all the seasons of the year with a high frequency during the winter season (44% & 38% respectively). The birds that were tracked at least twice were included in results summarizing seasonal habitat use (N= 56 birds; 1240 minutes in 130 locations). |