Diurnal activity pattern of age-sex groups of a small and fragmented population of Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra l.) in Western Haryana, India

Abstract

Focal sampling method (Altmann, 1974) was used to record the behavioral activities of different age sex groups of blackbuck at Badopal village site of western part of Haryana which is a natural patch devoid of true grassland and surrounded by a semi-arid agro-ecosystem with high human habitation. Twenty-four fortnightly field visits were conducted for a period of one year from December 2019 to November 2020 under four classified seasons to monitor four age-sex classes, i.e., adult male, sub adult male, adult female and sub adult female. The behavioral activities were recorded from dawn to dusk covering three phases of the day (morning (06.30h to 10.00h) noon (12.00h to 14.00h) and evening (16.00h to 19.00h)). Major behavioural categories were divided as follows: Feeding, Walking, Standing, Resting and Others. Blackbucks were reported to be most active at dawn and dusk hours. Adult male spent least time in feeding among all four studied age sex categories due to its territorial nature, whereas adult females were reported to spend maximum time (41.29%) in feeding activity followed by sub adult female, sub adult male and adult male. Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) revealed that feeding activity of the species was highest and statistically significant after resting among all the behavioural activities recorded. Therefore, the species spent most of its time in feeding to fulfil their energy and nutritional requirements for survival and reproductive fitness.