Study of morphomatric biology of cotton Pygmy-Goose Nettapus coromandelianus coromandelianus Gmelin
Abstract
Morphomatric of Cotton Pygmy-goose, Nettapus coromandelianus coromandelianus was studied during 2006 to 2008. The males are comparatively bigger in size than the females. The average weight was found to be 226.50 gm and 219.50 gm for male and female respectively. The primary (wing) feather arrangement in male was found to be P1 < P11 < P10 < P9 < P8 < P7 < P2 < P6 <P5 < P3< P4. The females have a more or less similar arrangement except the P2 and P6 where P6<P2. The mean length of the middle toe in male was found to be 34.32+0.194 mm; where as in female the same remains 0.5 mm shorter (+0.163). The wing expansion was ranged between 424 mm to 426 mm in both male and female, but with slight variation in mean value (male- 425.17+0.753 mm; female- 425.53+0.816 mm). Since no morphomatric studies has been done so far on this species, the present paper was hypothesized to the study of morphomatric variation in various aspects of Cotton Pygmy-goose indicating the relation of wings, hind-limbs, head neck, beak, tarsus, different types of toes and tail in respect to the habitat utilization and ecology of the wetland.
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