Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2020 | 12(4): 15489–15492
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5545.12.4.15489-15492
#5545 | Received 11 November 2019 | Final received 09 February 2020 |
Finally accepted 07 March 2020
Mating behavior
of the Yellow-throated Marten Martes flavigula (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mustelidae)
Abinash Parida
1, Meesala Krishna Murthy 2 & G.S. Solanki 3
1,2,3 Department
of Zoology, School of life science, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram 796004,
India.
1 abinash.wild@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 krishnameesala6@gmail.com, 3 gssolanki02@yahoo.co.in
Editor:
Honnavalli N. Kumara, Salim
Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, India. Date of publication: 26
March 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Parida, A., M.K. Murthy & G.S. Solanki (2020). Mating
behavior of the Yellow-throated Marten Martes_flavigula (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mustelidae).
Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(4): 15489–15492. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5545.12.4.15489-15492
Copyright: © Parida
et al. 2020.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Science & Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India. ( vide Grant NO.
SR/SO/AS-91/2012).
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements:
Department of Science and Technology (GoI)
provided financial support the main study during that time these observations
were recorded.The authors expressed great sense of
gratitude towards the chief wildlife warden, Department of Forest, Environment
and Climate Change, Mizoram as well as wild life guards (field assistants) help
during this work.
Martes flavigula Boddaert, 1785, commonly known as the Himalayan
Yellow–throated Marten, is the biggest marten in the old world and has
distinctive blends of black, white, golden-yellow and brown, comparatively
brief fur and lengthy tail. It is
differentiated from eight other known races of the species by the lack of a
bare skin above the hind foot plantar pad, a big hair mat between the forefoot
plantar and carpal pads, and its longer, luxuriant winter coat (Pocock 1941).
Yellow-throated Marten has a broad distribution in
tropical Asia (including the Greater Sundas) and
expands to the Palaearctic north-east (Corbet &
Hill 1992). It is frequently said to be
a voracious predator. For example,
Pocock (1941: 336) cited local reports given to J.M.D. Mackenzie (in Wroughton 1916) that “three or four will attack an unarmed
man”. There is, however, no specific
verifiable proof to support such extreme reports although Yellow-throated
Marten is known, however, to feed on a broad range of vertebrates,
invertebrates, fruit, honey, and food waste both on the ground and in trees (Heptner et al. 1967; Parr & Duckworth 2007; Zhou et al.
2011).
It is listed as Least Concern on
the IUCN Red List due to its wide distribution, evidently relatively
stable population, occurs in a number of protected areas, and no major threats
(Abramov et al. 2008). But in India,
this species is regarded threatened. Yellow-throated Marten is under protection
in the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972 Schedule II (Part II).
The species occurs in the Himalaya of Afghanistan,
Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, the Korean peninsula, southern China,
Taiwan, and eastern Russia. The southern
range of Yellow-throated Marten stretches across Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand,
the Malay Peninsula, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (Chutipong
et al. 2016). In
northeastern India, it has been reported in Arunachal
Pradesh, Manipur, Himalayan regiion in West
Bengal, and Assam. In
the Sunda Shelf it occurs
in Borneo, Sumatra, and Java (Proulx et al. 2005).
The Yellow-throated Marten has comprehensive and
temporary home-ranges. In a single, 24
hour cycle, it patrols the land actively, and is known to cover 10–20 km. It hunts mainly on the ground, but can
skillfully climb trees, jumping between branches 8–9 meters away (Heptner & Sludskii
2002). It restricts its operations to
treetops after snowfall till March. Estrus cycle takes place twice a year from
mid-February to late March and from late June to early August. The males fight each other for access to
female during these phases. Typically,
litters consist of two or three kits and rarely four (Heptner
& Sludskii 2002).
No previous observation is available on mating behaviour
of Yellow-throated Marten in India, and this is a first report.
The present opportunistic study was carried out in Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) on mating behaviour
of Martes flavigula during
November 2018 during an ongoing primate survey on transect line at Tuilut anti-poaching camp of Teirei
range. DTR covers 500Km2 as core and 488Km2 as buffer area. Its geographical location is measured 23.3410N
and 92.1270E, 800–1100 m.
Annual rainfall of the area is 2,000–2,500 mm and the minimum
temperature is 3.5oC and the maximum temperature is 35oC.
Natural vegetation on the upper slopes of the reserve
is tropical type with evergreen at lesser altitudes. The forest is widely split into three kinds:
tropical moist deciduous, tropical wet evergreen, and subtropical montane
(Champion & Seth 1968; Forest Survey of India 2002) (Figure 1). The map was extracted from Google images as
well as Google Earth pro (v.6.0).
Using a video camera (Sony HXR-MC1500P), the mating behaviour was registered on 25 November 2018 for around
four minutes. The video was recorded
slowly to determine the frequency of mating behaviour
during winter. The information was
recorded over a time scale of three minutes.
One episode of mating was consisted of three minute duration.The
three minutes duration was split into six
intervals of 30 second each. Mating was classified into unsuccessful and
successful category.These categories were recorded in
each interval during mating (Thurman & Broghammer
2001; Gupta & Pati 1992).
On 25 November 2018 at 05:35h, two martens were
observed mating on Sterculia villosa tree (locally named Khau-pui)
(Image 1). The plant height was about
23m and the girth at breast height (GBH) was 117m. We recorded the activities from a distance of about 15–20 m.
During mating, the copulation was observed 14 times
(36, 41, 48, 62, 70, 77, 85, 92, 107, 127, 145, 151, 194, 196 secs)
successively (Supplementary Video 1–3).
During mating, female was on her stomach (Image 2), and facing her head
forward. The male did not look around
and laid over the female (Figure 2). We
observed four consecutive couplating rhythms between
60 sec to 90 sec followed by three time during 30 sec to 60 sec, two
consecutive coupling rhythms were noted between 120 sec to 210 sec and no copulation was observed between 0 sec
to 30 sec (Figure 3). During the
copulation, an interruption (Image 3 and Supplementary Video 1–3) from another
male Martes flavigula
was recorded.
The initiation of mating is a complex behaviour in Yellow-throated Martin that depends on the
temporal and spatial orientation of mating individuals. Pre-mating orientation is essential, for mate
selection and sucessesful
copulation (Rymer et al. 2007). Breeding pattern in
martens vary on spatial changes. In the northern hemisphere, females were found
active during February to September
(Pearson & Baldwin 1953; Nellis & Everard
1983) and in the southern hemisphere female breeds actively during August to
February (Gorman 1976). Khan (2008)
stated that Small Asian Mongooses breed primarily in Bangladesh from March to
July, but it is not evident whether females breed when offspring are there in the group. A recent incidence of mating of Indian Grey
Mongooses H. edwardsii was reoprted
in an open place and the individuals immediately vanished into the nearby
bushes (Murali et al. 2012).
For
figures & images - - click here
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