Urban Resourse Utilization For Feeding Purpose By House Crow (Corvus Splendens)

Research Article
Shabanam K. Saiyad., Soni V.C and Bhupat Radadia
DOI: 
xxx-xxxxx-xxxx
Subject: 
science
KeyWords: 
House crow (Corvussplendens), Junagadh, anthropogenic food, Urban land utilization.
Abstract: 

The manner in which House crow uses different urban components is the reason of their survival. We aimed to understand how they use the urban resources for feeding purpose. Total count method was followed and each feeding site was visited twice in a month at 8h00 to 10h00 am. Study was conducted at twenty-nine feeding sites in Junagadh. Total five land use categories i.e. residential area, public park, slaughter houses, commercial area and agricultural land were drawn to estimate the utilization of anthropogenic food derived from each land use category. Significant differencewas found in urban lands utilization among five land types(F=3.179> F crit, 0.01>P) in which 52% of population was found to be dependent on resources derived from only slaughter houses followed by commercial land(15%) and public parks (14%).House Crow were found to feed significantly (F=3.162> F crit, 0.01>P) more on slaughter wastes (49 %) and secondly on food offered by man on regular basis (21%).House Crows preferredregular macro feeding sites compare to micro feeding (smaller feeding opportunities)as food was available on daily basis and in larger amount at macro feeding sites.(t=39.27 > t crit, 0.01>P).A positive correlation was observed between increased anthropogenic food and increased crow count within study area (R2 = 0.9592).