Pakistan J. Zool., vol. 41(1), pp. 7-15, 2009. Field Evaluation of Different Grain Bait Bases Against Indian Crested Porcupine, Hystrix indica* Muhammad Mushtaq**, Afsar Mian, Iftikhar Hussain, Shahid Munir, Irfan Ahmed and Abdul Aziz Khan Department of Zoology (MM, AM, AAK) and Department of Wildlife Management (IH), PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, and Vertebrate Pest Control Programme, NARC, Islamabad, Pakistan (SM, IA) Abstract.- Indian crested porcupine, Hystrix indica, is widely distributed and a serious pest of forest plantations and agricultural crops. Field trials, conducted in Balakot-Abbottabad tract (Pakistan), suggested that in no- choice food preference tests, groundnut was the most preferred food item, followed by maize, wheat, millet, rice, grams and oats. The present results suggested that significantly higher quantities of all the grains were consumed in cracked form than in the whole form, except for rice, where the difference was not significant. Preference for groundnut over other grains was confirmed in both multiple-choice and paired-choice tests. Consumption of all the food grains significantly increased with increasing duration of exposure, indicating a shy and careful nature of the species in sampling a novel food. No-choice tests of groundnut and maize offered in pure form and in different proportions revealed that groundnut and maize offered in 1:1 combination, can be a useful and cost effective bait base. Key words: Indian crested porcupine; Hystrix indica; grain baits; food preference; groundnut; maize; consumption. INTRODUCTION Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica Kerr) is a widely distributed rodent in the subcontinent, inhabiting temperate scrublands, grasslands, forests, steppe mountains and sandy deserts (Gurung and Singh, 1996; Roberts, 1997; Khan et al., 2000; Siddique and Arshad, 2004). It is basically herbivorous and causes damage to forest plantations (Ahmed and Chaudhry, 1977; Greaves and Khan, 1978), fruit trees (Mian et al., 1988) and agricultural crops (Khan et al., 2000). Porcupine claims 38.1% to 90% of the young plants of Pinus spp. (Sheikher, 1998; Khan et al., 2000; Hussain, 2004), 42% of Robinia pseudoacacia (Khan et al., 2000) and 30% and 12% to seedlings of Azadirachta indica, and Eucalyptus spp., respectively (Idris and Rana, 2001). Amongst crops, maize, potato and groundnut are more susceptible to porcupine damage (Brooks et al., 1988; Khan et al., 2000; Mian et al., 2007). Success of afforestation programmes and food security requires that such losses be minimized through controlling the * Part of Ph.D. thesis of first author. ** Corresponding author: mushtaq210461@yahoo.com 0030-9923/2009/0001-0007 $ 8.00/0 Copyright 2009 Zoological Society of Pakistan. porcupine population. Rodenticides are the main stay of all present- day practical porcupine control programmes. Physical control methods (trapping, snaring, dog hunting, electric fencing, policing) are largely ineffective and biological/genetic control methods are still to be developed. Effective rodenticide control mainly depends upon a higher acceptance of the bait base as compared with the naturally available foods (Petrusewicz, 1967). Detailed studies are, therefore, required on the bait base, which should be cheap, easily available and above all acceptable to porcupine under the field conditions of the specific area. Pervez (2006) studied the preferences for 6 cereal grain foods (wheat, rice, maize, barley, sorghum and millet) in no-choice and choice tests with captive porcupines. The results of the study revealed that rice was the most consumed and sorghum was the least consumed. The preference of these food baits is still to be tested under field conditions. Mian et al. (2007) evaluated 7 grain foods (groundnut, barley, wheat, rice, sorghum, maize and black grams) under the field conditions of the central Punjab (Pakistan), where groundnut and wheat are dominant crops, and the results showed that groundnut was the most