Food habits of indian crested porcupine ( Hystrix indica ) ( Kerr 1792 ) , in district Bagh , Azad Jammu and Kashmir

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica) is classified as an agricultural pest species. It feeds on plants and crops; hence, it is responsible for massive financial losses worldwide. The current study was conducted to assess the diet composition of Indian Crested Porcupine in District Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K). Thus, fecal samples were collected and examined from different sampling sites. Reference slides of the material collected from the study area were prepared for identification of dietary components in fecal pellets. A total of 80 fecal samples were collected and processed. Percent relative frequencies (P.R.F.) were calculated for each plant species recovered from pellets. Data revealed that Indian Crested Porcupine consumed 31 plant species in its diet, among them Zea mays (34.31±7.76) was the most frequently selected species followed by Rumex obtusifolius (15.32±2.57) and Melia azedarach (12.83±4.79). The study revealed that the greatest diversity of (n=20) plant species were consumed in summer season while minimum (n=13) species were used during winter. Among the parts of plants, stem was highly consumed in spring (57.2%) as compared to seed in fall (36.7%) while spikes and leaf were the least recovered parts from the fecal matter. The Berger-Parker diversity index showed highly diversified food (10.92) in the summer time of the year as compared to the autumn season (2.95). This study provides a baseline for the diet preference of this pest in the study area. Based on current findings, a detailed investigation on damage assessment, exploration, habitat use and management of Indian Crested Porcupine in AJ&K has been recommended.


Study Area
The area under study is comprised of 1368 km 2 and lies at 33° 53'-34° 07' N, 73° 29'-74° 00' E with an altitude of 1500 m to 2500 m above sea level ( Figure 1). Topographically, it is a hilly area covered by the Pir-Panjal range that is sparsely covered with coniferous forests. Generally, the climate of the area change with elevation having a temperature range between 2 °C to 40 °C. The annual rainfall of the study is about 1500 mm (Alif, 2016).

Method
The study area was divided into three study sites: Dheerkot (site I), Bagh (site II) and Hari Gehal (site III) ( Figure 1). The ten potential sub sites were selected from each site to collect fecal material during a period of one year (November 2015to October 2016. It covered all four seasons of the year including winter (November-January) spring (February-April); summer (May-August), and autumn (September-October).

Sampling
Food and feeding habits were investigated by analyzing almost 80 fecal samples collected from 30 study sites of the study area. The collected fecal samples were identified through their characteristic size and shape, labeled and stored in refrigerator at -4 o C.

Introduction
Indian Crested Porcupine ((Hystrix indica) (Kerr 1792), is a commonly found rodent throughout the Pakistan (Mushtaq et al., 2010). It inhabits different types of habitats like plantations, canal sides, and embankments of water bodies. It also prefers to live in subtropical broadleaf hill forests in Asia. Indian Crested Porcupine are herbivorous in diet, feeding upon a variety of plants and crops (Talukdar et al., 2019) and often cause massive losses to orchard owners and farmers by damaging fruits, vegetables and other flowering plants Pervez, 2006;Hafeez et al., 2011). The economically important varieties of maize, potato and groundnut were damaged by this species (Khan et al., 2000;Hafeez et al., 2011). Besides, the pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), onion (Allium cepa) carrot (Daucus carota) and bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) were also reported to be eaten by Indian Crested Porcupine (Pervez, 2006;Hafeez et al., 2011). Some grasses such as Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense), buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris), Sewan grass (Elionurus hirsutus) and oilgrass (Cymbopogon jwarancusa) were also trampled by it (Khan et al., 2000;Hafeez et al., 2011). Despite the significant loss caused by the species, no scientific data are available regarding damage assessment of Indian Crested Porcupine in AJ&K. Therefore, this is the first study of the foraging behavior and effect of Porcupine as a pest in district Bagh, AJ&K.

Reference Slides
The main seasonal plants and damage plant of the area under study were used in making reference slides by following the method of Williams (1962) and Ward (1970). The dried vegetation fragments were soaked for a night in a mixture of distilled water, ethyl alcohol, and glycerin (1:1:1) and afterward passed through water for 10-20 minutes. A homogenizer was used to grind the plant tissue (Virtis, Model 302968) in a medium of distilled water. To clear the specimen, the ground tissues were put in a cotton cloth and placed in 1% sodium hypochlorite. Then it was soaked in 5% Chlorox (chlorine bleach) and distilled water (1:4) for half an hour. Dilute acetic acid was added to the contents to neutralize the basic effect of sodium hypochlorite. The contents were treated with a mordant solution for 15-30 minutes, and basic residues were removed by dripping the distilled water. For staining, the contents were treated with hematoxylin for 10-15 minutes and then washed with water. A drop of Canada balsam was placed on a clear glass slide. Stained plant material was transferred in mounting medium on a glass slide with the help of a camel hair brush and spread uniformly. Again a couple of drops of Canada balsam were placed on the stained plant material and secured with a coverslip of 22 x 40 mm.

Diet analysis
During laboratory analysis, the fecal material was washed with water and soaked in distilled water in a cotton cloth. The distilled water was filtered and remains were passed through 70% alcohol for 10 minutes. To achieve differentiation, the fragments were treated with light green stain. Alcohol gradients (30%, 40%, 50%, 70%, 90% and 100%) were used to prepare permanent mounts. The different slides prepared were observed under light microscope (60 X) and compared with reference slides. The percent relative frequency of fragments of various species of plants was calculated as: . % .

TotalNo offragments ofa sp Percent Relative Frequency x100 Total No offragments analysed =
For the diversification of food in dissimilar seasons Berger-Parker index was used as: Where N max showed the maximum numeral figure of fragments of a plant species in a season and N were the overall parts of plants recovered in that season respectively. To calculate the overlap among different study sites, Sorensen's similarity index was implied as: 2 C Sorensen s similarity index 100 A B = × + Where C was the number of plant species found commonly from both localities A and B. While A and B represent the plant species recovered from locality A and B respectively.
Kruskal-Wallis test was performed to investigate level of significance (P<0.05) among the diet variation in different study localities and seasons.

Results
The analysis of fecal samples showed following spatio-temporal diversity in the nutrition of Indian Crested Porcupine in study area:

Spatial Food Analysis
The following diversity of plant species were recovered from three study sites: site I (30), site II (30)  Different parts (via stems, roots, leaves, seeds spikes, tubers, rhizomes and fruits) of plants were recovered from the fecal material of species. Percent elative frequency showed that the stem and seeds were the most consumed parts while leaves and spikes were the least consumed parts in all sites ( Figure 2).

Temporal Food Analysis
Analysis of fecal samples collected in different seasons showed the following diversity in the food of Porcupine.
The variation in diet of species during different seasons was evaluated by Berger-Parker diversity index which revealed that the diet of Indian Crested Porcupine varied mostly (10.92) in summer, followed by spring (7.53), winter (6.53) and fall (2.95) ( Table 3). There was a nonsignificant difference in the relative frequencies of plant species consumed by the porcupines during different seasons (Kruskal-Wallis test: X 2 = 0.40, p=0.750, df=3) and among different localities (Kruskal-Wallis test: X 2 = 0.08, p=0.922, df=2) (Table 4).
On average, consumption of plants species at three different sites of study area was similar with Zea mays, Melia azedarach, Pinus roxburghii and Rumex obtusifolius Table 3. Berger-Parker diversity index of diversity in seasonal sample of the fecal pellets of the Indian Crested Porcupine in Bagh, AJ&K. found to be highly consumed by Indian Crested Porcupine. The area is sparsely covered with coniferous forests and has similar types of hilly habitats and vegetation. Besides, Indian Crested Porcupine is strictly herbivore in diet (Talukdar et al., 2019), therefore a high overlap (Sorensen's similarity index) in food items was noted in the diet of animal species among different study sites. However, seasonal variation in the diet of Indian Crested Porcupine has been noted in present study. Triticum aestivum (13.28±1.90), Melia azedarach (11.83±1.84), and Brassica compestris (11.05±1.10) were recorded as most abundant species in fecal samples collected during spring season. This is in accordance of findings of Hafeez et al. (2014) Hafeez et al. (2014). Brooks et al. (1988) reported the crops like maize and potato in food of the species in irrigated plains and mountainous areas. Khan et al. (2000) found the species feeding on the grasses like Cenchrus ciliaris and Sorghum halepense at Karluwala (Bhakkar) Pakistan.
Among crops, Zea mays (34.31±7.76) was the most used plant species in fall season. In a research conducted in Pothwar Plateau of district Punjab, Pakistan, Hafeez et al. (2015) testified the occurrence of Zea mays (13.91%), Sorghum vulgaris (13.28%) and Cynodon dactylon (12.38%) in the autumn diet of the animal., Moreover, Mian et al. (2007) Hafeez et al. (2014) in the fall diets of this species.
The cultivated plants are noted as major diet components in Punjab Hafeez et al., 2011;Khan et al., 2014;Hafeez et al., 2015), in contrast to the present study that has a mixture of wild (15) and cultivated species (16). This could be due to reduced extent of agriculture near our study area compared with the Punjab area. Moreover, similar plants were found to be consumed by Indian Crested Porcupine in district Bagh as reported in existing literature of its feeding habits in Pakistan. But the ranks of consumed plants varied according to season and locality.
The difference of general habitat and abundance of plant species in both areas likely accounts for this variation.
Our work revealed that the stem was the most highly part of the plant eaten by Indian Crested Porcupine. Maximum consumption of stem (29.0%) was also reported by Hafeez et al. (2011) from fecal pellets of Indian Crested Porcupine from Faisalabad, Pakistan. The greater use of stem could be a gnawing strategy, which was used to sharpen incisors and keep them fit for cutting (Downs et al., 2015). Further stem selection could also lower the effort of the animal required in exploring, digging out and extracting the concealed parts of plants lying beneath the ground surface. (Lovari et al., 2017). The seed was the second frequent plant part found in fecal material., Seed could be a good source of energy, as they have clumped distribution and persistence in autumn, making them a good choice to be eaten by a herbivore. Underground parts of plants are noted as dietary items during different seasons in the current analysis. Even Indian Crested Porcupine can consume them in a food deficient period. Moreover, roots, rhizomes and tubers are high carbohydrate sources (Alkon and Saltz, 1985;Lovari et al., 2017). Mori et al. (2017) explained the presence of roots and tuber in the dietary components of the Indian Crested Porcupine throughout the year in Turkey and central Italy respectively. Leaves were least recovered, perhaps their high digestibility is the reason for such rarity. Akram et al. (2017) reported bark as the major (34.89%) dietary components of the species in the winter season, followed by twigs (17.18%), seeds (17.06%); roots (2.59%) were a minor part of diet in Madhya Pradesh, India. Wild fruits were noted as the main food source during the winter season in Italy . Overall diet of Indian Crested Porcupine consists of mainly woody parts of plants in the winter season (Talukdar et al., 2019). Food selection of this species is based on palatability, digestibility, crude contents and availability of food items. This selection is a significant influence that explains how this animal adapts itself in a wide range of habitat (Alkon and Saltz, 1988;Refinetti, 2008;Fattorini and Pokheral, 2012).
Indian Crested Porcupine were noted to feed on 31 wild and cultivated plants in our area, Zea mays the chief crop is most selected diet item of this species. There is an increasing risk of Indian Crested Porcupine as an agricultural pest in this area due to a lack of baseline data regarding feeding habits. A detailed study is required to evaluate the damage of this pest species in cultivated lands of the country.