Sariska tigers begin marking zones

Sariska tigers begin marking zones
22 Jul 2008, 0620 hrs IST, Anindo Dey,TNN

JAIPUR: The relocated tigers at the Sariska Tiger Reserve are exploring the surroundings and have started marking their territories.

Officials at the Sariska Reserve have said that while the male and the female tigers had begun chalking out their territories, however, they were yet to overlap each others areas.

Officials say so long the tigers have been roaming across the length and breadth of the forest. “While the male tiger even ventured near human habitation the female has been shy. But it has allowed us to go much closer to it than we could venture towards the male tiger,” said K Shankar, principal investigator of project tiger and a professor and research coordinator with the Wild life Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun.

He added that after having gone around a considerable part of the forest the tigers have just begun earmarking their territories. “However, while earlier their territories were overlapping now they are not. And they are in different parts of the forest,” he said.

Shankar, along with his team, has been tracking the tigers ever since they were brought to the Sariska Reserve from Ranthambore. “The female though shy is intelligent and has been making more natural kills than its male counterpart. But being from Ranthambore they are not scared of vehicles and allow us to come near them,” he said.

However, in their research on the behaviour of other animals at Sariska after the release of the tigers what has come as a surprise to the team is that even those young herbivores that have so long not seen a tiger are making alarm calls at the mere sight of the big cat.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur/Sariska_tigers_begin_marking_zones/articleshow/3262009.cms
http://bigcatrescue.org/