Mousumi Das

• Professor
• Assistant Professor at Vidyasagar college, kolkata

The present survey on butterfly diversity and abundance was carried out in the adjoining area of Mangalajodi wetland, Sitarampur, Tangi, Odisha for six consecutive days from 10 th to 15 th December, 2024. The vast wetland of Mangalajodi which attract thousands of migratory birds is also endowed with diverse fauna of butterflies. The study recorded...

Butterflies, being a fascinating creature of nature as well as a great ecological indicator, have been on the forefront of conservation initiatives since a long period. A short-term study on diversity and abundance of butterfly community was carried out in North Narayanguri, Assam, an adjoining area of Manas National Park from 10 th to 16 th Novemb...

The study evaluated decapsulated Artemia cysts meal (DACM) as a source of protein and carotenoid in diets for rosy barb, Puntius conchonius. A six-month feeding experiment was conducted in 15 glass aquaria of five feed treatment to evaluate the effects of dietary replacement of fishmeal (FM) protein with DACM on growth performance, food utilization...

Diurnal activity pattern and time budgeting of male jaguar (Panthera onca)

Wild herbivores are difficult to house in captivity due to their wide home range and specific diet. Data of their behavioural pattern and time budgeting are crucial for their welfare and captive management. Hence, a comparative study on overall seasonal behavioural patterns and hourly activity budget of male, female and calf nilgai (Boselaphus trag...

For the sustainable development of aquaculture practices, the search of cost-effective nonconventional easily available fishmeal alternative animal protein sources is being globally encouraged. Nutritional evaluation of five selected nonconventional animal meals revealed that these were rich in protein content. To evaluate the efficacy of these fis...

Understanding the behaviors of a particular species in captivity is crucial to compare them with the ones in wild for the overall growth of animal population. Hence, a study on diurnal behavioral pattern and time budget analysis of a male ostrich (Struthio camelus) was conducted at Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolk-ata, India, from August 2023 to Jun...

This study evaluated superworm (Zophobas morio) larvae meal as a novel protein and carotenoid source in diets of goldfish, Carassius auratus. A six-months feeding trial was carried out to estimate the effect of dietary replacement of fishmeal with superworm meal at graded percentages on growth performance, survival, digestive enzyme activity and ca...

Butterflies, the indicator species are used as a tool for monitoring the health of a habitat as their diversity and abundance reflect the impact of urbanization in an area. The current study was undertaken to estimate the diversity and abundance of butterfly fauna in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata India. A total number of 72 butterfly species o...

Animal in captivity can serve as ambassadors for the wild ones. As behavioural data can help address the specific needs of captive animals and can be used as a welfare indicator, a diurnal behavioural study and time budgeting of a male Indian peafowl, Pavo cristatus was carried out from June 2023 to May 2024, at Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata,...

Butterflies are considered indicator species for conservation planning and environmental monitoring as their diversity and abundance are visibly affected by anthropogenic activities. In this study, the diversity and abundance of butterfly fauna in the surrounding vegetation of Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata, India was assessed to provide baseline inform...

In order to search of viable alternative protein source for aquaculture, a feeding trial of six-months was carried out to test the effect of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) meal relacing fishmeal protein at 0% (con-trol), 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% in practical diets (named D0, D25, D50, D75 and D100 respectively) on the growth performance, feed utilizatio...

Butterflies are the indicator species as their diversity and abundance represent the health of a habitat and act as a tool for monitoring the impact of urbanization in an area. The aim of the present research paper is to estimate the diversity and abundance of butterfly fauna in the surrounding vegetation of Subhas Sarobar, Kolkata, India. The pres...

The present study deals with the butterfly diversity of Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park, Golaghat district, Assam, India which was a survey-based study of five consecutive days from 6 th to 10 th February, 2024. The study recoded 72 butterfly species belonging to 52 genera and six families namely Papilionidae (6 species), Nymphalida...

Background: Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) is a potential ingredient in aquafeed for containing high protein, minerals, vitamins and pigments which provide nutritional value to fish. It is a growth promoter and carotenoid source in non-ornamental fishes. Methods: To evaluate the potential of A. platensis (Spirulina) as a growth promoter and caro...

Wild herbivorous animals are difficult to house in captivity due to their wide home range and specific diet. As wild captive animal's behavioural data are used as a welfare indicator, diurnal behavioural study and time budgeting of a male giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) was carried out from August 2022 to June 2023 in Alipore Zoological Garden, Ko...

A short-term systematic survey on butterfly diversity and abundance was carried out for a period of five days from 6 th January to 10 th January, 2024, to explore the butterfly fauna of Buxa Tiger Reserve, located at the foothills of Eastern Himalayas in the northern part of West Bengal. A total number of 65 different butterfly species belonging to...

Butterflies are the prettiest insects due to their attractive and diverse wing colours and patterns. A short-term survey on the diversity of butterfly species in the Rock Garden, Ranchi, Jharkhand, from 7 th December to 10 th December, 2023, revealed the record of 76 butterfly species belonging to 53 genera and 5 families, namely Papilionidae (2 ge...

A study was conducted on the diurnal behavioural pattern and activity time budget of a captive female burchelli zebra (Equus burchelli) in the Zoological Garden, Alipore, West Bengal, India, from 10.00 to 17.00 h between October 2022 to June 2023including winter and summer seasons by using focal sampling method with 25,200 minutes of observations....

The diurnal behavioral pattern and activity time budget of a male sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) was studied at Alipore Zoological Garden, West Bengal, India from October 2022 to June 2023. This study aimed to make a comparison of the overall diurnal activity between winter and summer seasons, and hourly activity budget from 10.00 to 17.00 h by usin...

Diurnal activity pattern and time budgeting of female Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) was studied at Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India, for seven hours observation period from 10.00 to 17.00 h between August, 2022 to June, 2023 by using focal sampling method with 23,520 minutes of observations. The study identified 14 different high freque...

Diurnal behavioural study of Great Indian one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) was conducted from August 2022 to June 2023 in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India, in order to determine the overall behavioural patterns with the variations in seasons and hourly activity budget from 10.00 to 17.00 hours by using the methodology of focal sampl...

In search for a potential fishmeal alternative, six-months feeding trial was conducted to examine the effects of replacing fishmeal (FM) with black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM) in the diets of black molly, Poecilia sphenops on growth performance, feed utilization, survival and whole-body composition. Five iso-nitrogenous diets (40%) were formula...

A six-months feeding trial was carried out to evaluate the effects of diets supplemented with carrot meal [0%(CM0), 1%(CM1), 3%(CM3), 5%(CM5), 7%(CM7) and 10%(CM10)] on growth, survival, proximate body composition and total carotenoid content in zebrafish, Danio rerio. Complete randomized design (CRD) was implemented where 18 aquaria were used, eac...

To evaluate the effects of three non-conventional insects (cricket, grasshopper and mealworm) and commercial diet (control) on growth, survival and total carotenoid content of ornamental fish, platy (Xiphophorus maculatus), a feeding trial was conducted in Zoology laboratory, Vidyasagar College, West Bengal, India, between November 2021 and May 202...

A six-month laboratory trial was conducted to assess the effects of dietary replacement of fishmeal protein with mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) meal at 0% (control), 25% (D25), 50% (D50), 75% (D75) and 100% (D100) level on growth efficiency, feed utilization parameters, survival percentage and total carotenoid deposition in skin and muscle tissue of g...

Nutrient composition of the grasshoppers Oxya hyla hyla showed that they are a rich nutrient source containing 687.7 g protein/kg of dry body weight. Their antinutrient values fell within nutritionally acceptable values of the poultry bird Coturnix japonica japonica (Japanese quail). The most required essential amino acids and fatty acids were also...

Edible insects are a natural renewable resource of food that could solve the problem of food scarcity. The level of some nutrients and anti-nutrients of two grasshoppers were determined in order to ascertain their suitability as a food and feed source. Spathosternum prasiniferum prasiniferum contained the highest crude protein content of 65.15% whi...

Acridids could be an alternative nonconventional protein source for livestock industries like poultry farms. For a high acridid biomass production, selection of acridid species along with their suitable food plants is essential. The present experiment was conducted by rearing of two common Indian acridids, Oxya hyla and Spathosternum prasiniferum t...

Insects are natural food for many vertebrates. Being nutritionally rich, acridids can be used to produce high quality feed for livestock industries. For a sustainable supply for the feed manufacturing companies, a huge acridid biomass must be obtained on a regular basis. Th erefore, for successful acridid farming, a laboratory rearing system in sem...

A large annual acridid biomass should be produced on acridid farms to manufacture high-quality, low-cost feed for the poultry industry. A laboratory experiment was conducted to measure the nymphal mortality, nymphal developmental period, growth indices, and adult life span of 2 common acridids (Oxya hyla hyla and Spathosternum prasiniferum prasinif...

Human beings are greatly indebted to certain insects, which supply useful products, including their excreta that may be used as manure for agricultural practices. Reliable estimation of nutrients in grasshopper excreta is required to formulate alternative low cost organic acridid manure for sustaining crop production. The present study was conducte...

Being nutritionally rich, short-horned grasshoppers (acridids) can be used to produce high quality feed for livestock industries. For a sustainable supply to the feed manufacturing companies a huge acridid biomass should be obtained at a regular basis. For this purpose acridid farming is going to be essential. But for a successful farming their opt...