24 November 2016 / leggypeggy

Good news from Pench and sad news from Gir

Bandipur National Park, Collar Valley, Gir National Park, lions, Pench National Park, tigers

Collar Valley has reared 25 cubs. She was pregnant in this pic

Collar Valley
Collar Valley of Pench Tiger Reserve is going to make it into the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. This grand old lady has successfully reared 22 cubs to adulthood (she’s only ever lost one). Earlier this month, she gave birth to another three, bringing her live total to 25. This is a world record for Bengal tigers.

We spent quite a bit of time following Collar Valley last year when we were in Pench. We came upon her in the morning and watched as she padded through the forest. She wasn’t all that happy to see us because our vehicles blocked where she wanted to go. If I recall correctly, she was pregnant at the time with her previous litter.

She got her name from the fact that she was one of Pench’s collared tigers. Her old collar stopped sending signals quite a few years ago, and Anand says it fell off in the last year. Bet she’s pleased about that.

You can read about our time with Collar Valley here.

Could this be Maulana?

Maulana
We were saddened to learn that Maulana, an iconic lion in India’s Gir sanctuary, died last week. At age 16, he was one of Gir’s oldest surviving lions. For many years, he and his brother, Tapu, reigned over a pride of 39 lionesses and cubs. He had been under treatment for the 10 days before his death.

We visited the sanctuary in Gujarat last year and were lucky enough to see numerous lions, including one adult male and some juveniles. Our group was travelled in two Gypsy (open 4-wheel drives) and the other group saw three different males: one older and two young ones. I wonder if any of us saw Maulana. The post about our visit to Gir is here.

P.S. There have been several other major losses in India’s animal kingdom since we arrived in early October. Ram, another lion of Gir, died earlier this month. He was also 16. A male, Kingfisher, died in Pench after a territorial fight with another male, Umarrani. But human behaviour takes the biggest toll. Across India, tigers are poached, poisoned and displaced by urban development. I saw a newspaper report that said a tiger is lost every 10 days. 😦

P.P.S. On a lighter note. Given that this post covers births and deaths, I thought you might get a kick out of the fact that Australians have an amusing slang expressions for births, deaths and marriages—hatch, match and dispatch.

P.S.S We’ve seen a new tiger on this visit. I’ll be posting about Prince of Bandipur National Park soon.