Tiger returns in forest of the night Using camera traps, city and Mumbai-based NGOs trace a tiger thought to be missing for a month at Ranthambore Mayuri Phadnis Posted On Wednesday, March 19, 2014 at 10:17:33 AM In a heartening development that follows the rising wave of awareness about the dwindling numbers of the national animal and the rapid loss of its habitat, a tiger perceived to have been missing for a month was traced in the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, by a team including members of a city-based organisation. The big cat was captured on camera around 10.35 pm Known to move out of their territory when faced with fierce competition, this tiger was located by a camera trap on January 11, placed near the fence of the sanctuary in August 2013. This was a result of the efforts of the Rotract Club of Pune, Sinhagad Road (RCPSR), which placed the camera, and Bombay Tiger Watch. Trishant Simlai, who worked on the project and is a research associate with Tiger Watch, said, “Since the population of tigers in Ranthambore is increasing, it reduces the carrying capacity (the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, as per Wikipedia). Young tigers tend to move out when they are not ready to take over territory. At times, they tend to move out of the protected area, which threatens their lives. This makes it necessary to monitor these tigers. Camera traps prove extremely helpful in such situations.” Such traps comprise remotelyactive cameras equipped with triggers like motion or infrared sensors and light beam. Upon the detection of motion, the camera clicks the picture in the absence of researchers. Siddharth Date, the project chairperson, said “Given that radio-collaring has been stopped, camera traps prove to be useful.” Date informed that male tigers hold on the female’s neck while mating, and radio-collars thus make it difficult for the animals to mate. Speaking about the re-appearance of the tiger, Dr Dharmendra Khandal, conversation biologist with Tiger Watch, said, “Through these images, we realised that its new location was close to its original territory.” The camera trap also managed to capture some more fascinating scenes. “We captured a pair of mating porcupines, which is a rare sight,” said Dr Khandal. A leopard with a prey in its mouth was also captured by the camera. source: pune mirror
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:12:48 +0000
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