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Wildlife in India

Royal Bengal Tiger
About Royal Bengal Tiger :
The home to Royal Bengal Tigers (Indian Tigers or panthera tigris) is India Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma where these graceful animals live mostly in sanctuaries. The usual habitats for these animals are dense forest, mangrove swamps, savannahs, rocky countries and lush grassland. Royal Bengal Tigers are the most numerous in population than any other Tiger subspecies. They are the largest living member of the cat family and the fastest running animal.

Royal Bengal Tigers (and all the Order Carnivora consisting of cats, dogs, bears, weasels) are descendants of a marten-like animal called the miacidae, which evolved during the late Cretaceous period. The Saber-tooth Tiger was not the ancestor of modern Tigers; it was an evolutionary dead-end.

In the wild Royal Bengal Tigers are pure carnivores and hunt medium-sized animals, such as rabbits, badgers, water buffalos, deer, wild boars, goats and sometimes they hunt domestic cattle. A Royal Bengal Tiger will drag the kill to a safe place to eat. They are able to eat up to 40 pounds at a time and then go without eating for days. Some Tigers become man-eaters, but it happens to be very rare. In the zoo Royal Bengal Tigers are fed chicken, horsemeat and kangaroo meat five days a week and fast on bones twice a week.

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Indian Camel
About Indian Camel :
The camel was originally valued in its homeland for not only providing a ride for weary travelers across the desert, but also providing shade with its body and fuel from it's droppings. The camel's body temperature can reach a blistering 105 degrees but the heat doesn't seem to bother the animal. In fact, they hardly sweat, which helps them conserve water.

Speaking of water, it is a common falacy that the hump is where moisture is stored. The hump is actually a huge supply of fat that the camel uses when food is scarce. If the camel goes for a really long time without eating, using only the stores in his hump, the hump will shrink until it is just floppy skin. So, where is the water stored??? The camel can drink over 20 gallons in 10 minutes, and a lot of that fluid is stored in the camels bloodstream!

There are so many "special features" on the camel! His feet are spongy and spread out as he takes a step, so that he won't sink in the sand! His long eyelashes keep flying sand out of sensitive eyes, but if that doesn't work he has a third eyelid
that's transparent so that he can see and still keep his eyes sand-free. He has very good hearing and can close his nostrils. During mating, the male camel uses a fleshy frog-like inflatable soft palate to attract the female. They have thick skin on their backs to protect them from the sun, but thin skin on their bellies to help keep them cool. Large callused areas keep their knees safe from the burning sand.

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Siberian Cranes in India
About Siberian Cranes :
The crane bird is a wild north american bird and can be seen on most bird photos sites. The bird is a symbols of longevity and represented with other symbols of long life, the pine and bamboo, and the tortoise.

In feudal Japan the crane was protected by the ruling classes and fed by the peasants. When the feudal system was abolished in the Meiji era of the 19th century, the protection of Siberian Cranes was lost.

The bird was almost saved form extinction and there is a satellites tzuru in Japan that is named after the bird. There is a tradition that if one folds 1000 origami Siberian Cranes, one's wish for health will be granted. Since the death of Sadako Sasaki this applies to a wish for peace as well.

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Indian Lion
About Indian Lion :
The Asiatic Lion is rated the most endangered large carnivore globally. And India has the distinction of being the last earthly refuge of the Asiatic lion. The Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary is the one and only remaining habitat of this proud and majestic species.

An average Asiatic Lion, also known as the Indian Lion,
is generally 2.5 m to 2.9 m tall, and weighs between 200 to 250 kg. It has a majestic mane and a big tail tuft. Indian Lions move about in prides, comprising 2-3 male adults and more lionesses and cubs. They communicate with each other with a variety of grunts, meows, growls, moans and roars, and while female cubs stay with the pride, the males leave after they are three years old.

The Asiatic Lions are lazy and indolent creatures that prey on the Sambar, Chital, Nilgai, Wild Pig, and occasionally on goats and camels. Lion males often live in pairs that last a lifetime. However, in the pride it is the females who go out hunting in packs and bring back prey, which is first devoured by the male, and only then by the rest of the pack. In the daytime, they live close to water holes and rest in the shade. Hunting is relegated to dusk, or at night.

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Indian Elephant
About Indian Elephant :
The Indian Elephant goes back to the mythologies. As the Gods (Deva) and the demons ( Asura) churned the oceans during sagar manthan ( sagar = sea ; manthan = churning ) for the elixir of life - amrit ( nectar ) that would make them immortal , there surfaced the navratnas ( nine jewels ). One of these jewels was the elephant. The elephant is, therefore, considered absolutely precious to be preserved and protected like the way jewels are.

The Asian elephant is one of three species in the order Proboscidea, the others being the Savanna elephant and the Forest elephant. The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) is a one of three subspecies or races of the Asian elephant ''Elephas maximus". The other two subspecies of the Asian elephant are E. m. sumatranus on Sumatra and E. m. maximus on Sri Lanka. The Indian elephant for example, is larger, has longer front legs and a thinner body than the Asian elephant found in Thailand. Through adaptive radiation, elephants until the Pleistocene Era (2 million years ago) had spread throughout the world except for Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Their sheer size was a factor in allowing this wide radiation and they could be found in a wide variety of habitats from desert to high mountain forest areas. Elephants in general are the largest existing land mammals and they have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom (weighing 5 kg or 11 lbs). Elephants are endowed with versatile trunks, which have over 100,000 muscles units that make it extremely dexterous. This incredible dexterity enables an elephant to pick up very small items and use their trunks for a wide variety of functions. The trunk has no bones or cartilage except for a tiny bit of cartilage at the tip of the trunk which separates the nostrils; each nostril is lined with a membrane.

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Indian Peacock
About Indian Peacock :
The male Indian Peafowl, commonly known as the peacock, is one of the most recognizable birds in the world. These large, brightly colored birds have a distinctive crest and an unmistakable ornamental train. The train (1.4-1.6 meters in length) accounts for more than 60% of their total body length (2.3 meters). Combined with a large wingspan (1.4-1.6 meters), this train makes the male peafowl one of the largest flying birds in the world. The train is formed by 100-150 highly specialized uppertail-coverts. Each of these feathers sports an ornamental ocellus, or eye-spot, and has long disintegrated barbs, giving the feathers a loose, fluffy appearance. When displaying to a female, the peacock erects this train into a spectacular fan, displaying the ocelli to their best advantage.

The more subtly colored female Peafowl is mostly brown above with a white belly. Her ornamentation is limited to a prominent crest and green neck feathers. Though females (2.75-4.0 kg) weigh nearly as much as the males (4.0-6.0 kg), they rarely exceed 1.0 meter in total body length.

The Indian peacock, Pavo cristatus (Linnaeus), the national bird of India, is a colourful, swan-sized bird, with a fan-shaped crest of feathers, a white patch under the eye and a long, slender neck. The peacock is widely found in the Indian sub-continent from the south and east of the Indus river, Jammu and Kashmir, east Assam, south Mizoram and the whole of the Indian peninsula. The peacock enjoys immense protection. It is fully protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection) Act, 1972.

Indian Peafowl do most of their foraging in the early morning and shortly before sunset. They retreat to the shade and security of the forest for the hottest portion of the day. Foods include grains, insects, small reptiles, small mammals, berries, drupes, wild figs, and some cultivated crops.

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Indian Leopard
About Indian Leopard :
The Indian leopard is most easily recognized by its rosette patterned coat and extremely long, darker tail. This large cat is sometimes confused in appearance with the South American Jaguar - the leopard though is less stocky and unlike the jaguar, its rosette markings are generally smaller and have no internal spots.

The overall size of the leopard depends very much on the subspecies and location, with the largest animals growing to a length of nearly 5 feet with an additional tail length of some 3 feet - generally the male is between 20-40% larger than the female. The base coloration of the coat also varies greatly depending upon location, ranging from golden/yellow in open grasslands, through yellow/cream in desert areas to deep gold in mountain and forest regions. All black or melanistic leopards, sometimes commonly called Black Panthers are born in the same litter as normally marked cats and also carry the rosette markings, although these are masked by the darkness of the fur. It has been observed that the melanistic leopard is most generally found in the dense, wet forested areas of India and south east Asia, where the coloration advantages the cat in its hunting.

The leopard is a versatile hunter and generally nocturnal in its pursuit of prey - however the increased frequency of hunting found in the female raising young often leads to more opportunist hunting during daylight hours. The type of prey taken by the leopard is again dependant largely upon its locale - in the open grasslands of Africa where roaming herds of large to medium sized herbivores are common the leopard will take young eland and wildebeest, impala and gazelle. However in the same areas the leopard will also take small mammals such as hares and rock hyrax, reptiles and insects. In contrast, in the west and central forested regions of Africa the leopards prey consists mainly of the smaller antelope such as duiker, small monkeys and various rodents such as rats, squirrels and porcupines.

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Indian Rhino
About Indian Rhino :
A few centuries ago, the Indian one horned Rhinocerous ranged across the north Indian plains in the wetlands of the rivers Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra. Today this survivor from the prehistoric times is found only in pockets in the north eastern state of Assam and in Nepal. In Assam, their Rhino habitat is limited to just two national parks - Kaziranga and Manas.

Type of Rhinos :
There are five kinds of Rhinos found in the world -
» White rhino
» Black rhino
» Indian rhino
» Javan rhino
» Sumatran rhino.

The white and black Rhinos are live in Africa, while Indian, Javan and Sumatran are Asian Rhinos, found in Noth Pakistan, Assam in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The usual weight of an Indian Rhino is 2,000 kg. The one
way to distinguish between a an Indian Rhino and an African Rhino is the single horn. Both white and black African Rhinos have two horns. Another distinguishing feature of the Indian Rhinoceros is its skin, which is knobbly and falls into deep folds at its joints, giving a look like the Rhino is wearing a coat of armour.

All the Rhinos are vegetarian and Indian Rhinos mostly eat grass, fruits, leaves and crops. Their well developed upper lip helps them to eat out tall elephant grasses, which they like the best. It also helps them to pull out aquatic plants by the roots. Indian Rhinos usually prefer to roam around in the morning and evening hours to avoid the heat of the day and live for about 40 years.