Mammals on Monday 14 - Sloth Bear

The Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) or Indian Bear is native India, parts of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.  It was formerly found in Bangladesh, but is now extinct there.

Sloth bears are a medium-sized bear. Females typically weight between 55 and 105 kg, and the larger males weight between 80 and 145 kg.  Sloth Bears have completely black fur, except for a pale white Y- or V-shaped mark on the chest. They are 60–92 cm at the shoulder, and have a body length of 1.4–1.9 m 

Sloth Bears feed on termites, bees and ants, and it has a long lower lip that helps it to suck up insects. Sloth Bears bear use their long powerful claws to rip open termite mounds and other insect colonies or nests before feeding on the disturbed insects.  Apparently they are also very fond of honey, and at times can become a nuisance as they forage for sweet food wastes discarded by humans!

I take it that this individual is a female as it (she?) was accompanied by young bears.  Due to the density of the forest they were in I was unable to get decent pictures of the young bears, and to be honest they looked like indistinct fluffy black lumps when I glimpsed them through binoculars!

I saw these animals near the end of the Five Tigers day in Ranthambore National Park - which ended an utterly remarkable day of wildlife watching on an even higher note.

Hope everyone is well in these strange and worrying times.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 713 - Common Green Magpie

The Common Green-Magpie (Cissa chinensis) was not an easy bird to spot in India.  Despite its common name I only saw a single individual of this species - and that was outside the hide at the Birders Den in Sattal in Uttarakhand. 

This was a wonderful place to stay, with great food, and possibly even more important a bird hide!  Fruit and small amounts of seed were provided outside the hide and the birds, knowing that a free feed was on offer, flocked in.

That being said, and as noted above, this was the only individual of this species I saw during this trip.  A knowledgable Indian birder who was in the hide at the time the this bird arrived point out that while the bird was both green and a true magpie, it was not at all common.

It was another of those special encounters - and if you have not had a look at this post about tigers, it shows some pictures from an even more special encounter! 

As you can see, this bird came in to an artificial pool of water outside the hide.  I am no fan of artificial reflection pools, but I was more then happy to see this bird.

E-bird describes this species as 'a neon-colored, noisy, highly social bird of lowland and mid-altitude subtropical forests. Surprisingly difficult to spot as it glides from tree to tree in the middle and upper levels of the forest. Memorable if seen well: bright green with chestnut-tipped wings, a black mask, and a coral-red bill'.   I have to say I agree with this analysis.

The Common Green Magpie is a member of the crow family, roughly the size of the Eurasian Jay or slightly smaller.

I have to say, I am particularly fond of the picture where this bird is poking out its tongue.

As ever, to join in with WBW, click on the link below.  Cheers  SM

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Mammals on Monday 14 - Tiger

During my recent trip to India, I was lucky enough to see five different tigers in a single day during a to slightly longer visit to Ranthambore National Park.  The group I was in saw two large cubs in the morning, two females, a male and same two cubs in the afternoon.

It was an utterly remarkable experience.  The morning sightings were distant and generally through trees, but the afternoon brought very close sightings.  At their closest two or three of the tigers were less than 10m from the open topped vehicles we were in.  People have asked if I found it frightening to have an apex predator that close, with nothing between us and it but thin air.  I can honestly say that I was uttering unbothered by this proximity - which may say a great deal about my understanding of risk - as the tigers seemed totally relaxed and unconcerned by our presence. 

And the more I think about that day, the more I come to understand that it really was an 'out of the box' day that is extremely unlikely ever to occur again. 

Ranthambore National Park covers an area of 1,334 square kilometres in the state of Rajasthan.  The national park is about 400km south of Delhi and was declared a National Park in 1980.  It's probably one of the most famous places to see tigers in the wild.  There are approximately 70 tigers in the National Park.

The tiger in India is classified as Panthera tigris tigris, a species which is now thought to include all tigers except those that occur on in Borneo, Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra. 

In the past the tiger ranged across eastern Turkey, northern Iran and Afghanistan to Central Asia and from northern Pakistan through the Indian subcontinent and Indochina to southeastern Siberia, Sumatra, Java and Bali. As of 2022, it inhabits less than 7% of its former range and now has a fragmented distribution in the Indian subcontinent, the Indochinese Peninsula, Sumatra, northeastern China and the Russian Far East. 

Approximatley 75% of the world's wild tiger population is found in India, with an almost 3,700 tigers being identified in 2022. The India tiger population has more than doubled since 2006, largely due to protected area management, anti-poaching efforts, and community cooperation.

Tigers have a typical body length of between 1.4–2.8 m with an additional  0.6–1.1 m of tail! They stand 0.8–1.1 m high at the shoulder. The tigers found in Siberian are some of the largest known, and this may be an adaptation to the cold environment in which they occur. Male tigers in India weigh between 200–260 kg, with females weighing somewhat less.

They are an utterly remarkable animal, and it was a privilege to watch them. 

Hope all is well.  SM

 

Wild Bird Wednesday 712 - Black-Throated Tit

The Black-Throated Tit or Black-Throated Bushtit (Aegithalos concinnus) is a small and rather active bird that is found over a large part of Asia, including the foothills of the Himalayas, stretching northern India north-eastern Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, northern Myanmar, China, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I saw this bird in India.  

Although it is a common bird I found it hard to get decent pictures of it due to its fast movement and tendency (as far as I can tell) to like being in the tops of trees!

Even from these pictures you can see that it is a rather charming little bird, with a black throat and a black 'bandit mask' around the eye.  There is considerable variation in the exact details of the plumage of this bird over its range. Some studies, based on DNA rather than plumage, have suggested that some of the recognised subspecies should probably be elevated to full species level.  As I only saw the birds in India, my life list will not be extended by such studies!

This species is not a true tit, being more closely related to the Long Tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) than the 'classic' tits and chickadees of Europe and North America.  

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Hope all is well,  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 711 - Peafowl / Peacock

Well, I'm back from a remarkable trip to India, but I am still trying to shake off an annoyingly persistent case of jet lag!  As a result this will be a rather short post this week.

The Indian National Bird is the Peafowl or Peacock (Pavo cristatus) so that seems like a suitable bird to start my Indian posts with.  Technically the pictures in this post are only of Peacocks - which is the specific name for mane Peafowl.  However, and confusingly, the term Peacock is also commonly used for both males and females of the species.  Technically speaking, again (!), females are known as Peahens.

Such issues with naming take nothing away from the beauty of this bird which was surprising common in the lowland parts of my Indian adventure.  It's was a bit of a shock to see them charging across freeways and feeding on rubbish tips when my first experiences of them saw them wandering around stately homes and fancy gardens in the UK!

There have been many theories put forward to explain the makes extravagant tail, with some form of sexual selection process being generally favoured.  However, no definitive answer seems to be forth coming at present.

I took a surprisingly small number of picture of these flamboyant birds during the trip, and to be honest most of the birds we saw were roosting in trees when we were both still half asleep!

As ever, to join in with WBW click the link below.  Cheers - SM

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Back From India.

As some of you may have realised, I was in India for most of the last three weeks. This is my fourth trip to this wonderful, colourful, restless and remarkable country.  But it is the first of these trips that has concentrated more or less entirely on wildlife, rather than on cultural aspects or work.  So, you will not be surprised to know that my blog posts for a while will have an Indian flavour!

However, it's impossible to have any interest in photography and not take at least some pictures of people and places.  Here are a few pictures to give you a taste of what I saw beyond wildlife.

If any of you are thinking of going to India - just do it.

I hope all is well.

Cheers. SM