Malabar Gray Hornbill | Photo Credit: SPL
The team of research workers from the Kerala was awarded the Future Conservationist Award with the Conservation Leadership program (CLP) for their project to maintain Malabar Gray Hornbill, the endemic and vulnerable species of Western Ghats. The Ahirbudhnyan M., Shireen Sithara, Akshay Moti and Sivasankari G., will use a grant to implement the community protection initiative within the Wayanad Landscape to protect Hornbill beyond protected areas.
The CLP Future Conservationist Award, a partnership of three organizations to protect the Biological Diversity of Fauna & Flora International, Birdlife International and The Wildlife Conservation Society, supports promising young conservationists with less than five years of professional experience, offers financing and adapted mentoring impacts on subsequent projects. The program supports management skills, communication and management skills and sees individuals to work with communities and leads a long -term change in protection. The team project emphasizes the participation of the community to raise awareness of the ecological role of Malabar Gray Hornbill.
The aim of the project is to build local support for Hornbill protection through educational programs and workshops. Surveys will be carried out to understand the perception of the public and encourage behavior change.
Nesting trees
The focus of the initiative is the mapping of nesting trees and Malabar Gray Hornbill in the human landscape. By identifying the nesting sites and the evaluation of quality and threats of habitats, it hopes to develop a custom protection strategy adapted to the needs of the species. The project also examines the Hornbills nesting preferences that rely on secondary cavities – cavities in trees originally formed by primary cavity nests, such as woodpeckers – or natural. Once the couple finds a suitable cavity, they can use it repeatedly during reproduction and even throughout their lives. As a result, the availability of trees bearing a cavity is essential for the reproductive success of the species.
“This study is based on earlier work from our team,” says Peroth Balakrishnan, Head of the Department of Wild Biology of Wild Animals in the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), which mentors this project. “Our earlier research has identified more than 500 vertebrate species depending on tree cavities throughout India and showed that Malabar Grey Hornbill often nest outside the protected areas, including plantations. This emphasizes the critical need to protect the trees carrying a cavity in the habitats used by people. Rohit Naniwadekar from the Nature Conservation Foundation Foundation also mentions the team and supports their work on Biology and Hornbill.
Malabar Gray Hornbill (Olyceros Griseus) is an iconic species that symbolizes the rich biological diversity of Western Ghats. Although these birds are found in plantations and agricultural areas where their nesting opportunities are often limited. The current study focuses on the Hornbill population in plantations in the Wayanad area to balance protection with local land use.
“We hope that this project will become a model for maintaining biodiversity outside the protected areas by involving communities that share space with wild animals,” says Ahirbudhnyan, project manager and graduates of the bio -living animal biology department.
Published – April 9, 2025 20:28
