Abstract
Rodents are important pests of agriculture in Pakistan. Short-tailed mole rat, Nesokia indica, is one of the most destructive and widely distributed species. The present work attempts to estimate the population density of this rat through its burrow count in non-cropped areas of central Punjab. An area of 378.5 hectares of such land in the districts of Jhang, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Lahore and Kasur was sampled. The overall per hectare density of N. indica for all types of sub-habitats was 0.8. The structure of the burrow system was nearly the same in all types of sub-habitats. From the density data it is quite clear that the mole rat attained high density in banks of irrigation ditches (16.2 burrow system per hectare) and banks seepage drains (13.5 burrow system per hectare). On the average, N. indica made 0.9 fresh and 2.6 old mounds per burrow system. The maximum number of fresh mounds and open burrow mouths were observed between 08:00 to 10:00 a.m. and between 06:00 to 06:30 p.m.
