Counting Bucks

So how many black bucks are there in Jayamangali nature reserve ?.

Ok, the question is not as profound as “Are we alone in the Universe” but it still is a pretty important question considering that black bucks are an endangered species. Once found abundantly all across India, now they are limited to only some parts, thanks to habitat destruction (and trigger-happy movie stars). The Wildlife Aware Nature Club (WANC), whose members call themselves WANCers, decided to find this out in concert with the forest department and had called for volunteers for a black buck census.

On reading about this, the first thought that crossed my mind was “Whoa !!, they should have chosen a better acronym”. I guess it is still better than other names they could have ended up with like, I don’t know, say “Fauna Upkeep and Conservation Club” and then the members would be called…never mind.

But puns aside, these folks are a really dedicated bunch of wildlife enthusiasts. They have worked for many years and it is due to their persistence and perseverance that this particular area has been designated as a conservation reserve by the government. Since I have always wanted take part in a wildlife census, I volunteered and the good people said yes.

There were quite a few volunteers from Bangalore and I hooked up with a couple of participants who had a SUV. It was just as well, since there was no way my small car could have even survived some of the road stretches. We reached there on Saturday evening. There were around eighty volunteers in all. The evening was spent learning the ropes of how a census was to be conducted.

Here is how I thought it would be, first you spot the black bucks, then you run to the deer, chase it if necessary and finally mark it with a number: one, two and so on. You remember the largest number you marked and then add it up with the rest of the group’s at the end of the day. I had been working on the running part of it in the gym anyway.

Thankfully, I was wrong. Here is how a wildlife census is done (there are other ways as well, this is the one we followed). The reserve is divided up along lines, not necessarily straight but in such a way that these lines are far from each other and cover as much area as possible. Each line is called a ‘transect’. The volunteers are then put into groups. In this case, the groups consisted of four volunteers with a forest guard. Each group begins walking from the start of the transect looking for black bucks on either side.

We were given a data sheet given having a bunch of columns which we had to fill up when bucks were sighted. The details include the time of spotting, number of bucks, how many males, females and fawns and whether they are moving to the left or the right of the transect and the approximate distance from you. The time and the movement info are used to identify possible double counting by adjacent transects thereby reducing error.

Our transect began at a village outside the conserve and ended at the base camp. Since our track consisted walking through shrubs and grasslands, we did not have a guard with us as it is pretty hard to get lost there. It was a small trek of about 4 kms. We started at around 7.30am and we were done by 9.30am. We spotted around 17 black bucks which included a herd of 8. The best part was we also spotted two Indian foxes. These are very shy creatures and pretty hard to find. Infact of the 21 groups that were in the census, we were the only ones to spot foxes.




During the census, you have to stay put to your transect so that you get as accurate a data as possible. So once we had finished the count and submitted our results, it was easier to explore since you don’t have to stick to the path. I and few others went around and spotting even more black bucks and a whole bunch of birds. This place has plenty of raptors (eagles, harriers, kestrels and so on), it is a treat to birdwatchers. After having walked around for a few more hours, we returned to the base at noon.

It was time for lunch and some customary thanksgiving speeches. We all got certificates to acknowledge our participation. It was 7 in the evening when I finally returned back to Bangalore. It would take a few days for the final results to come in before we know what the estimated number of black bucks is. When they do, I shall update this post with the result.

It was a great experience, I loved it and I plan to go back there again one of these weekends, just to get a better look at the bucks.

Because, you see, when it comes to black bucks, it is just too hard to pass the buck…

[Update: I just received the results of the census. Here are the numbers
Black Male 73
Brown Male 56
Adult Female 280
Fawn 45
Unidentified 4
Total 454
There has been a decline in numbers since the last census in 2002]