Melanistic (Black) Panther, Bhadra Tiger Reserve

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Bhadra Tiger Reserve is seeing a few melanistic (Black) Panther sightings. Just yesterday (20th Feb 2012), tourists in the backwaters of the Bhadra reservoir saw this panther from a boat at 8am. There has been a couple of earlier sightings too. Researchers at the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) report of a melanistic leopard in a camera-trap capture from Bhadra in February 2009.

A black leopard is the same species as a normal-colored leopard with a high amount of pigment … Read More

Joint Camera Trapping Between India And Bhutan Reveals 14 Tigers

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Reports from a joint camera trapping exercise in Manas were discussed between park officials of the the two countries — Manas National Park in India and the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. Fourteen tigers have been captured in the camera traps that scanned 650 sq km of protected area. Four tigers were “common”, ie. they were spotted in both countries. Seven tigers were male and six female, with the gender of one being difficult to ascertain. Officials from WWF … Read More

The Leopards of Mumbai

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Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in the north of Mumbai seems to have always been associated with leopards attacking humans. However, a little delving into the patterns of attacks finds that conflict is a recent phenomenon. The attacks began around the nineties and took on its worst form in 2004, when in a single month in May, nineteen attacks on people were reported. Now again, post-2006, there have been no attacks on humans.

Recently the Forest Department of SGNP (headed … Read More

Camera Trap Images of Tigers in Andhra Tiger Reserve Point to Recovery

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Camera traps in the Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) in Andhra Pradesh have captured images of a tigress and her three tiger cubs feeding on a kill. The camera trap sequences provide evidence of breeding tigers and boosts conservationists hopes of a recovery in this large landscape. The India Tiger Estimate 2010 released by the Ministry of Environment and Forests last year records that the forests of Andhra Pradesh had a decline in the population of tigers. NSTR has an area … Read More

Tiger Population Doubles at The Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR)

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TIRUNELVELI, Tamil Nadu: The Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) has witnessed two-fold increase in tiger population in 2010-11, when compared to the last estimate in 2006-07. H Malleshappa, Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, said the tiger population was around 15 to 18 as per the tiger estimate taken in 2010-11. “This is a two-fold increase when compared to the 2006-07 estimate of six to eight tigers,” he informed. Tigers that migrate from Periyar … Read More

Tiger Wanders 280 kms Through Karnataka Forests in Search of Territory

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On May 1, a young male tiger which had strayed into a betelnut plantation in gama and was stoned by a mob, attacked and killed a man before it was tranquilized by the forest officials. On May 7th, the tiger was released into the Bhadra tiger reserve. Analysis of the photographs of the tiger’s release by the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), a wildlife NGO which had been camera trapping in Karnataka for around two decades, showed that the tiger … Read More

Camera Traps Reveal Four Tigers in Anamalai Tiger Reserve

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The presence of four tigers has been revealed by camera traps setup in three ranges of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve. The cameras had been installed after understanding the movement of the animals through front line uniform staff and anti-poaching watchers. The cameras were installed in Ullandy, Valparai, Manambolly and Amaravathy ranges and the sightings were recorded by the ones in Ullandy and Manambolly. Encouraged by the results, camera traps have been relocated in other strategic locations to know the presence … Read More

Pressure on Government to Adopt More Comprehensive Tiger Estimation Methodology

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Ullas Karanth and seven other top wildlife experts said that Jairam Ramesh’s announcement of an increase in tiger numbers from the national tiger estimation exercise, was based on unreliable data. The letter, published in Science magazine, added pressure on the government to adopt a more comprehensive counting methodology. Ullas Karanth is a member of the ministry’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). Though Jairam Ramesh had hit back at Ullas Karanth’s letter, on the same day he approved a new scientific … Read More

Using Multiple Sources of Information to Estimate Tiger Densities

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In landscapes where wildlife occurs in low densities, gathering information from a single data source often does not permit accurate estimation of population densities and abundance. In such cases, using multiple data sources may allow us to overcome ecological and logistical constraints to estimate densities of elusive carnivores such as tigers. In particular, innovative spatially explicit capture-recapture modeling approaches integrate information from photographic capture-recapture and genetic data to derive more robust estimates of tiger densities in India.

Authors A. M. … Read More