RESEARCH ARTICLES CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 113, NO. 1, 10 JULY 2017 103 *For correspondence. (e-mail: honnavallik@gmail.com) An updated account of mammal species and population status of ungulates in Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan Aakriti Singh 1,2 , Aditi Mukherjee 1,3 , Sumit Dookia 2 and Honnavalli Nagaraj Kumara 1, * 1 Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatty, Coimbatore 641 108, India 2 Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, University School of Environment Management, Sector 16C, Dwarka, New Delhi 110 078, India 3 Manipal University, Madhav Nagar, Manipal 576 104, India This study documents the present status of mammals in Keoladeo National Park (KNP) and assesses the population structure of ungulates. It provides a com- prehensive account of the mammal diversity of the park and aims to compare the change in mammalian species account ever since the park became a pro- tected area. We employed line transect surveys for density estimation of ungulates. We report local extinction of eight species since 1966, and extant diversity of 34 mammalian species in KNP. The esti- mated densities of chital, feral cattle, nilgai, wild boar and sambar were 52.37, 33.66, 13.68, 3.21 and 0.32 in- dividuals/km 2 respectively. Although blackbuck has become locally extinct and sambar density has signifi- cantly reduced, chital and nilgai as habitat generalists have increased in density in the last 25 years, which has contributed to an overall increase in ungulate population density in KNP. The mammalian diversity has changed substantially with local extinction of some carnivores and constant change in the habitat condition. Keywords: Distance sampling, density, local extinc- tion, mammal account, population dynamics, ungulates. MONITORING and sporadic documentation of animal populations at landscape and global scales can advance our understanding of ecosystem responses towards any change 1 . A diverse habitat supports numerous species, while a dynamic habitat changes frequently through proc- esses like vegetation succession, human activities and en- vironmental variations, thus influencing the species occurrence 2 . Changes in habitat affect species richness 3,4 , population abundance and distribution 5,6 , thereby affect- ing the local distribution of species around the world. Understanding the social behaviour and demography of wild animals plays a major role in population monitoring and effective conservation planning 7,8 . Monitoring the population dynamics of herbivores, in particular, helps in comprehending various ecological processes at landscape and ecosystem levels 9 . Herbivores play a major role in forest ecosystems by influencing forest structure, compo- sition, productivity, nutrient cycling and soil struc- ture 10,11 . Herbivore biomass specifically contributes considerable proportion of prey base of any area and has been used to compare the carrying capacity of different habitats 12 . Understanding the response of different species towards changing habitat conditions over a period of time is crucial to manage the species or the habitat. In semi- arid areas with high human density, the forests are highly fragmented with minimal water resources resulting in increased dependency on restricted available resources 13,14 . Such sensitive ecosystems with localized wetlands buff- ered with vegetation cover are further vulnerable to dis- turbance due to high dependency on them by people, their livestock and wildlife 15 . The Keoladeo National Park (KNP) in India is one such wetland in the semi-arid zone designated as a world heritage site 14 . It is a 29 sq. km dynamic ecosystem with rich floral and faunal diversity 14 . Ever since the park’s creation in 1956 it witnessed sev- eral changes in the ecosystem, eventually leading to alterations of the dependent wildlife. The major change in the habitat is primarily due to extensive invasion by Pro- sopis juliflora which not only replaced the native floral community but has vastly affected the large herbivore community that contributes to significant animal biomass of the area 16 . Cattle grazing is also one of the key reasons of altered ecosystem of the park 17 . There has been much debate about the reintroduction of cattle 18 in the park; es- pecially domestic water buffaloes 18,19 which could control the spread of wild grass Paspalum distichum 19 . The idea is however flawed in the sense that the wild herbivores are already serving this function 20 . Such continuous habi- tat modifications and the associated change in species diversity if monitored periodically can help evaluate the success or failure of management action plans 21 . The pre- sent study aims to provide a comprehensive account of the mammal diversity of Keoladeo National Park, along with the present status of population structure of the ungulates of the area. The study also compares the