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Royal Little Antelope Honking the Alarming !

“A poignant Story of Four Horned Antelope in Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary” A K Singh IFS

Four horned antelope considered to be under general apprehension of getting extinct26 from Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary is suggested to be flagship species of Indian Peninsula for its distinction of being associated to the ’s one of the extraordinary eating predilection28 and for environmental concern, an ecosystem in need of improvement of habitat, requiring conservation of biodiversity, a call for growth of ungulate population density in order to engender support, acknowledgment, wide spread appreciation and recognition from public at large. The idea is giving publicity to few key species34, the support given to Four horned antelope which is of IUCN, likely to be threatened indicator33 of tiger’s extinction will successfully leverage conservation of entire ecosystem and all species in and around the well protected areas which may translate Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary of into tiger reserves in the offing35.

Keywords: bovine antelope, not gregarious, hoof glands, solitary, Tetra-cerus, quadri-corn, occupancy model, persistence, Haynes estimator, vulnerable, solitary, water courses, moisture.

“In some cases the growth of the anterior horns of this little bovine antelope seems to be altogether arrested. This certainly applies to the Four horned Antelope as in Image 3 Tetracerus quadricornis or Chousinga is with thin legs and short tail found on these hills which have only two horns the posterior ones a good head carrying horns, no sign of the anterior horns being apparent,” R C Morris a Scottish wild life

Image 2. Hardwickia-Terminalia-Tectona- Forest Vegetation type MM Hills Karnataka.

Image 1. Hardwickia-Albizia Forest Type with cymbopogon, apluda, cenchrus, cynodon type grasses adventurist, coffee planter from Honnametti Coffee Estate, Attikan bungalow BR Hills in Karnataka thus writes his observation published on 25th Feb 1925 in Journal Bombay Natural Image 3 Four Horned Antelope walks in a peculiar jerky and juddering fashion. 2

History Society3. He further remarks- “this image, it moved gently parallel to the track little antelope is not gregarious and is found for a while till I started coming closer to it singly or in pairs, the two fawns thereafter quickly moved uphill and accompanying the parents until the rains, disappeared. Unlike barking chowsinga this is a rule, but I have however on two or more occasions seen group of 5 or 6 mature four horned antelopes, especially on one favourite hill top here3 .” British Naturalist Prater observes horns which are not ringed as in true antelopes, they are kneeled in front. The females are hornless. Front pair of horns are always small. At times there are no more than horn covered studs or mere bony knobs under the skin. One of the most interesting features in chowsingha is the presence of a pair of well developed

Image 5. Density per Km 2 of Four Horned Antelope over entire area of Cauvery Sanctaury.

gives a good opportunity of being clicked and remain stay away in the sight till sufficiently get disturbed. I recall the days with Killi a research scholar from National Centre for Biological Sciences in January

Image 4. IUCN Red Data List. Four Horned Antelope is one of the vulnerable species. Image 6. Number of occurrences under field observation of Four Horned Antelope in glands between the false hooves of the hind Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary during a month’s legs in both males and females2. time in Jan & Feb 2010 While perambulating along Cauvery 2010 observed these solitary tetra-corns on River I observed them to prefer variety of the hills as in Image 6 of Satrani betta, open dry deciduous forests in hilly terrain, Gundre betta, Gubekalguda, Attukombai undulating plateau with tall grasses in halla, Pareyanbetta along MM Hills, proximity to streams, river water in a pair or Cowdahalli and Basavanbetta when 24 little solitary Image 9. In a move to click an antelopes were found to meandering at 3 various places amid water stream and territorial forest areas which require flowing rivulets contributing to the Cauvery enhanced conservation efforts for habitat River6. Four Horns were dispersed more improvement for their long term towards bevinahatti stream, doddasone persistence9. Density of four horns could be valley and talhatinatha gorge of Cowdahalli. amplified by taking up creation of more These antelopes were equally distributed water waterholes, rejuvenation of streams more in chikkailore and basavanbeta reserve forest areas as in Image 5. Density of Four Horn Antelope : Of 210 , 48 sambhar, 9 gaur, 29 boars, 6 muntajac 29 elephants total 66 four horn antelopes were found in direct observation during Jan 2010 in the Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary in a month’s time. Haynes estimator16 based on data from visual detections were abridged to understand

Image 8. Dry deciduous Anogeissus-Hardwickia type Chikailur Reserve Forests with palatable feed and fodder get often burnt up in fire incendiaries.

Image 7. Tetracerus quadricornis Chowsinga shelters behind fire resistant bushes. Image 9. Basavanbeta Forests are favourable the tiny antelope’s density on occupancy habitat of Chowsinga with ample feeds and grasses. 11 model covariate shown in Image 5. and water courses, reviving dried up Density of the Four Horned Antelope ( rivulets, creeks and brooks chipping into 2 0.69 per Km ) found in the sanctuary are main Cauvery river7. Number of valleys and higher than many protected areas in . dales require to be taken up for 2 Gir NP ( 0.42 per Km ), Melghat Tiger improvement of moisture along the streams 2 Reserve ( 0.5 per Km ), Pench TR ( 0.7 per including waterholes with sufficiently 2 2 Km ), Bandipur TR ( 1.1 per Km ), Kanha plentiful and abundant forage base in the 2 NP ( 2.1 per Km ) while Panna TR with savannah woodlands if potential carrying 2 high density with 4.03 per Km . Cauvery capacity of four horn antelope Image 7 that Wild Life Sanctuary has one of the best is 5 to 10 times higher than the existing 363 four horn antelope density found including number is to be expected to be increased 4 upto 3630 to auger well with adequate tiger is and the Cauvery river streams are occupancy in the sanctuary. favourite resorts for this Tetracerus. In the The environmental stability of Cauvery early part of the year, before the rains Wild Life Sanctuary with favourable during May I noticed the lady four horn ambience carve a beautiful niche for this

Image 11. Four horn antelope density per Km2 in Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary is better than many other protected areas in India. stroll accompanying one or two fawn along

Image 10. Soil & moisture conservation works the river’s high hills behind the bushes. help improvement of habitat. Four horns One fine morning hardwickia & albizia antelopes stay longer at water holes. woods as in Image 2 were in full bloom “four horn crowned royal prince of with pale yellow white canopy, flame of the antelope in an amiable functional forests including erythrina blossoming red on high hills, amid 2010 sun half away from summer solstice after halting at Kingfisher Protection Camp prior night I

Image 12. Check Dams along with gully checks improve little antelope’s territorial dwellings. ecosystem full of savannah woodlands with Image 13. Protection pathways help monitoring variety of grasses as in Image 1 like wild life conservation & environmental stability. andropogons, chrysopogons, cymbopogon, was on way to Mekedatu along Cauvery cenchrus ciliaris, cynodon, apluda and river course. Indian Cuckoo was abuzz with arundinella blooming in variety of seasons. sound of cuckoo, cuckoo stretching far and Sanctuary is full of flourishing meadows of wide amid jungles, lorikeets, oriole & impereta, ischaemum and panicum fodder sterlings sneaking to feed seeds and slurping grasses looming large along with fringe area nectar from red blooms I was wonderstruck pasture lands with saccharum and 27 to see solitary tiny four horn antelope uphill pennisetum . The little antelope drink downstream in the midst of fully grown water regularly and seldom live far from it. cymbopogons under the canopy of The edge of the sanctuary along water hole 5 hardwickia. It started staring at me for a population density of this tiny antelope while. No sooner I positioned myself to which was supposed to be extinct from the take a click at it for a while in between & Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary of late14. saw all the four horns on its head, color of Acknowledgements: Write Up is upshot of field its coarse coat was dull red brown above observation stretching over my sojourn in Cauvery and white yellow below, there was a dark Wild Life Sanctuary and work of compilation of and broader stripe down the front of study and research notes reflecting under references forelegs2, then it disappeared in a moment. I with specific reference to Kililivalavan’s research tried to locate the female but to no avail. I notes on Potential of Tiger in Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary 2010. walked upon its trail for few yards then I saw innumerable tiny pellets of its faeces at 3 References: one spot. Breeding season is in the hot 1. Burnham, K. P., Anderson, D. R. & Laake, J. L. weather and rains. Youngs are born during (1980). Estimation of density from line transect sampling of biological populations. Wildl. Monogr. 72: winter season. 1±202.

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