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How many sparrows are there in a city of million people? Understanding the population of sympatric sparrows in the urban gradient of a tropical city in Southeast Asia

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Abstract

In cities, species have to endure severe biotic and abiotic changes in their surroundings, along with various anthropogenic pressures. In recent years, urban dwellers have declined throughout the world, including the most successful urban adapters‒ House Sparrow and Tree Sparrow. We studied how the population and habitat use of sparrows varied at different urban habitats (city outskirts, followed by residential and highly crowded commercial zones) of Guwahati, India. We carried out point counts using distance sampling to estimate the density of sparrows. We found that sparrows were largely associated with complex urban structures, and the density of sparrows significantly differed between species amongst the habitat. House Sparrow density was three-fold of Tree Sparrow, and the occurrence of both the species was highest at mid-level of urbanization. Tree sparrow had low density compared to House Sparrow in areas where urbanization peaked. Unlike Tree Sparrow, the habitat-specific detection for House Sparrow did not vary significantly. The detectability of Tree Sparrow was higher in residential buildings. The Manly Selectivity ratio for the preference and avoidance of different habitats showed that House Sparrows occupied commercial areas and a combination of commercial-residential sectors more than available and avoided areas with a low level of urbanization (city outskirts). Tree sparrows significantly preferred human habitation dominated by residential houses. We estimated around four hundred thousand sparrows (House Sparrow: 253,615‒357,454; Tree Sparrow: 32,882‒163,533) in Guwahati. The present study creates a baseline information for the sparrow population and habitat use in Guwahati City, and provides emphasis for maintaining (mid-level urbanized) areas where both the species are abundant.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to E.P. Odum School of Environmental Sciences, Department of Ecology & Environmental Sciences, Assam University and Aaranyak for providing the necessary facilities to carry out the research work. The research work is funded by Aaranyak-Rufford seed grant. We would like to thank Dr. Asad Rahmani for providing valuable literature on the subject.We would also like to thank Qamar Qureshi, Sutirtha Dutta, Sonali Ghosh, Malvika Onial and Monika Kaushik of Wildlife Institute of India and Panna Deb (Assam University) for their valuable support to carry out the work. We are grateful to Samrat Sengupta (Debraj Roy College, Golaghat) for providing the range finder, and Suranjan Dey (BRC, Bongaigaon), Ranjit Urang, Tridip Saikia (Aaranyak) and Nilutpal Mahnta (Gauhati University) for their help during the fieldwork. We would also like to thank Arup Kr. Das (GIS lab-Aaranyak) for helping with the LULC of Guwahati. The first author would also like to thank Debanjan Sarkar (Wildlife Institute of India) for the sketch of urbanization gradient and Ranjana Pal (Wildlife Institute of India) for comments and suggestions. The sketch of sparrows used in the figures were extracted from www.rspb.org.uk. The first author is thankful to Arundhati Mohanty (Central Zoo Authority, India) for proofreading the manuscript. Finally, we are thankful to all the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Funding

The first author (Anukul Nath) received fund from Aaranyk-rufford seed grant to carry out the field activity.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology & Environmental Sciences, Assam University, Silchar, Assam, India

    Anukul Nath & Hilloljyoti Singha

  2. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India

    Anukul Nath

  3. Department of Zoology, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar, Assam, India

    Hilloljyoti Singha

  4. Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Minarul Haque

  5. Aaranyak, Beltola, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Bibhuti P. Lahkar

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  1. Anukul Nath
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  2. Hilloljyoti Singha
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  4. Bibhuti P. Lahkar
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Contributions

Conceptualization: [Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, Bibhuti P Lahkar]; Methodology: [Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha]; Formal analysis and investigation: [Anukul Nath, Minarul Haque]; Writing–original draft preparation: [Anukul Nath]; Writing–review and editing: [Hilloljyoti Singha, Bibhuti P Lahkar]; Supervision: [Hilloljyoti Singha, Bibhuti P Lahkar].

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Correspondence to Hilloljyoti Singha.

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The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that they have NO affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or nonfinancial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Author names: Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, Minarul Haque, Bibhuti P Lahkar.

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Nath, A., Singha, H., Haque, M. et al. How many sparrows are there in a city of million people? Understanding the population of sympatric sparrows in the urban gradient of a tropical city in Southeast Asia. Urban Ecosyst 25, 1065–1081 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01210-1

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