|
Home > Bandhavgarh Mammals
Mammals of Bandhavgarh National Park
Tiger : Tiger - (panthera Tigeris 0 belongs to the genus panthera that includes four living species - leopard, jaguar, lion and obviously the tiger. Of the eight recognized subspecies of the animal, three are extinct and one is close to extinction. There are approximatley 6000 surviving wild tigers on the planet with over 50% belonging to the subspecies. Panthera tigris tigrios ( commonly known as Royal Bengal Tiger), which is distributed solely in the indian sub continent.
Aberration in pelage of the Royal Bengal Tiger are seen generally to vary from a yellowish orange to reddish orchre coat with dark brown-black verticaal stripes and spots. The white Tiger was first reportedly seen in the wild and captured by the Maharaj of Rewa in the 1950s.
Panther ( Panthera Pardus) - Known variously as the leopard, Tedua, and gulbhagh or just as the panther, this cat of an animal is all guide, patience, cunningness and sleuth. He would simply wait for ages for his chance and when the prey would be completely oblivious of his presence, he would pounce! Panther is not as big as the tiger and neither as powerful, but he is smart and he needs to be. To be able to share the same prey bas as the tiger, he needs all the guide and all the patience in th world. Although it selects relatively smaller prey and because of its strong prey - base overlap with the tiger, it tends to venture into forest periphery villages in search of small cattle like the goat, sheep and even poultry birds.
Unlike the tiger, the panther is a good climber and uses this advantage to get over its obvious disadvantage of size against the big brother. Its comparatively large tail helps in maintaining balance while climbing up or down. Usually active at dawn and dusk, it is rather shy and hence its sightings are less frequent in the jungle than the tiger's. But, its tendency to prefer peripherla wilderness, to avoid conflict with the tiger has compelled it to make frequent appearances on forest periphery settlements. This has resulted in increasing conflict with man as indicator of imminent threat to its survival and hence need for conservation measures aimed at peripheral wilerness.
Sloth Bear - The other big guy! lt has gained notoriety.becuse of human deaths ascribed to it. Actually this animal moves far and vvide in search of food and may come in contact vviLh man. Sudden encounters are dangerous and the animal following
its "flight or fight" instinct may attack and seriously injvre or kill due tO its obvious advantage of size, power and reflexes over the tvvo footed vveakling.
Ders Dre known to frequently kill bears, but only aRer long dravvn- out duels.
Usually solitary, it may be seen v1ith young ones over its back especially during late winters. lt prefers to come Out mostly in the late evening and night. This quite unique animal has a strong sense of smell although sight and hearing are poor. lt uses the sucking action of its nuzzle to suck out insects, honey
or termites from tree trunks, hives, riverbeds and termite mounds respectively.
Its diet is varied although termites are a delicacy.Thesloth bear is endemic to
the Indian sub-continent and because ofits notoriety of mauling humans and
supposed curative properties of its gall bladder needs special conservation
drives.
|
|
