Stay awhile in my burrow! Interspecific associations of vertebrates to Indian crested porcupine burrows

Abstract

The Indian crested porcupine, Hystrix indica, is a significant ecosystem engineer that builds extensive burrows in the semi-arid regions of north-west India. Many different animals use these burrows as temporary retreats or permanent shelters. Camera-traps were used to record 22 species using porcupine burrows, including 10 mammals, 8 birds, 3 reptiles, and 1 amphibian. In addition to birds foraging inside and around the entrance, the most common and persistent visitors were mongooses, rats, squirrels, hares, jungle cats, and small Indian civets. A bat species, Hipposideros sp. was found to be permanent occupants of porcupine burrows, while Indian rock pythons and jackals exhibited seasonal use. During winter, pythons basked outside the burrows and constricted their activities to the daytime. Conversely, porcupines are nocturnal and use deeper parts of their burrows than the pythons. Temporal usage patterns and spatial segregation allows for mutualistic behaviour between pythons and porcupines. Jackals were also found to use porcupine burrows during their summer breeding season, employing aggression to evict both porcupines and pythons. The study demonstrates a functional role for porcupines, which are capable of constructing “landmark” structures in the semi-arid regions of north-west India that support a range of micro-communities.

KEY WORDS:

• agonistic behaviour
• camera-trap
• Canis aureus
• interaction
• co-occupants
• Hystrix indica
• Keoladeo National Park
• Python molurus

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Rajasthan, Chief Wildlife Warden Rajasthan, CCF Bharatpur, Mr K.R. Anoop, Dr Khyati Mathur, and Mr Bijo Joy, as well as the Park Directors and Conservators, for permission to undertake fieldwork in Keoladeo National Park [No. 3(04)-11/CWLW/2010/9823]. We thank the Director of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore for providing facilities and encouragement. We also thank Dr. Shomita Murkherjee, Principal Scientist, SACON for suggestions with the analysis. We profusely thank Dr Matthew A. Cooper, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA for copyediting this article. We are sincerely indebted to the anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and suggestions in improving the manuscript. We appreciate the help of Ms Aakriti Singh, Research Fellow, SACON, for volunteering in the field. We also appreciate the help of Mr Randhir Singh and Mr Jitendra Singh for their assistance in the field.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Standard

This study was approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Research of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore. It also adhered to the guidelines and principles of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change of the Government of India. Permission to carry out this study was granted by the Rajasthan Forest Department [Permit No. 3(04)-11/CWLW/2010/982366].

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Video files (SOM_V1, SOM_V2) for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2019.1594392.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India [grant no. SB/SO/AS-133/2012].