Mon Oct 28 17:41:44 UTC 2024: Updated – October 28, 2024 11:12 pm IST – BHUBANESWARMelanistic tiger in Similipal of Odisha. | Photo Credit: PTI
The Odisha government has translocated a female tiger from Maharashtra’s Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve to Similipal Tiger Reserve, the State’s largest, to enhance the genetic diversity of its tiger population.
As part of a plan to introduce two tigresses, Odisha released a female tiger of two years and seven months into an enclosure in Similipal, where the animal would be kept under observation. It will be released later in the South Division of Similipal, according to State forest department sources.The State government had asked the National Tiger Conservation Authority to consider introducing female tigers in Similipal from other landscapes, largely due to the presence of pseudo-melanistic tigers as a result of inbreeding.
The All Odisha Tiger Estimation (AOTE-2023-24) says a total of 30 tigers were found in the State’s forests. Similipal has 27 of them.
A total of 13 adult tigers (seven females and six males) were found to be pseudo-melanistic in Similipal, and no other wild habitat in the world has pseudo-melanistic tigers.
According to Susant Nanda, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), the presence of so many melanistic tigers in Similipal is not a cause of concern. He stressed that a remedy in the form of the tigress had been procured.
A study titled ‘High Frequency of an Otherwise Rare Phenotype in a Small and Isolated Tiger Population’ conducted by multiple authors, including Uma Ramkrishnan, molecular ecologist and professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, says approximately 37% of tigers in the STR are pseudo-melanistic, characterised by wide and merged stripes.Also read: How and why these tigers in Odisha changed their stripes
“The high frequency of pseudo-melanistic tigers in Similipal and their apparent absence everywhere else suggests strong stochastic effects and inbreeding operating locally in this population,” the study says.
Recently, the government proposed the establishment of a melanistic tiger safari — the first of its kind in the world — in the buffer region of Similipal.
Published – October 28, 2024 11:11 pm IST
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