Language: Englsh
Several reports on the mammalian fauna of Jammu and Kashmir have been published from the second half of the nineteenth century to date. But the majority of these reports are by naturalists and deal with larger species of mammals, so that the number of species, particularly the smaller sized ones from the state, still remain unknown or poorly known. No single comprehensive collection of mammals from Jammu and Kashmir had ever been made and specimens from such a zoogeographically important area accessible to different museums were exceedingly scant. Thus, for procurement of representative collection (especially of mammals) and studying their habits and ecology, the present author conducted faunistic surveys of the state during 1974 (August, September) and 1975 (October, November).
This paper provides: ecological conditions of important collecting localities; annotated lists of the species obtained by these surveys, along with those already present in the collection of the Z.S.I., B.N.H.S., or recorded in the literature by earlier workers; and notes on the taxonomy, distribution, biology and habits of several species. An analysis of the mammalian fauna of the state is also made.