Investigation on Situation of Habitat and Allocation of Time Budget of Wild Water Buffalo Bubalus arnee (Kerr, 1792) in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Abstract

The study was conducted with main purpose to state the existing situation of habitat Wild Water Buffalo in the regards of land use and vegetation and to explore the allocation of diurnal time in different activities in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal. The Wild Water Buffalo categorized as endangered species on the IUCN Red list, restricted to south and Southeast Asia. For the estimation of land utilization freely available satellite imagery Landsat-5 TM (2011), Landsat-8 OLI-TIRS (2015) and Landsat-8 OLI-TIRS (2021) were used. Some circular plots were designed for vegetation studies. The behaviour was observed by focal animal sampling method. Most of the land was covered by agriculture (62.37%), followed by grassland (20.57%) and by water (4.79%) in buffer zone. In core zone mostly area covered by grassland (56.62%) then by sand (18.35%) and by water (10.97%). A total of 15 species of trees, 17 species of shrubs and 61 species of grasses and herbaceous plants were found in its preferred habitat. Common plant known to be eaten by Wild Water Buffalo were found as 3 species of tree, 4 species of shrub and 25 species of grasses. It was remarked that the time spent for grazing was 42%, followed by resting (30%), wallowing (11%), moving (9%) and for other activities (8%). It can be recommended to expand the area of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve for the sustainable conservation of this species.