Nilgiri tahr
From Wild India
(Hemitragus hylocrius)
| Nilgiri Tahr | ||||||||||||||||
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 Photo by Suresh V S | ||||||||||||||||
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| Nilgiritragus hylocrius (William Ogilby, 1838) |
The Nilgiri Tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) is a native to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western Ghats range in Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southernmost India. It is known locally as the Nilgiri Ibex or simply ibex. Its closest relatives are sheep (genus Ovis). Until 2005, it was placed with the Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) and the Arabian Tahr (Arabitragus jayakari) in the genus Hemitragus. However, Ropiquet & Hassanin (2005) placed it in a new genus Nilgiritragus, because it is genetically more similar to members of the genus Ovis (sheep) than to other tahrs.
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History
D. Hamilton, one of the earliest British visitors to this area (he came in 1854), wrote: "The hills are surpassingly grand and incomparably beautiful. Tahr herds were extremely wild because they were cornered, ruthlessly snared and shot."
In 1877, the Nilgiri Wildlife Association regulated shooting, and for nearly a century it championed the cause of the tahr. J.C. Gouldsbury, a hunter-turned conservationist, who had worked with the Kannan Devan Company, rendered invaluable contribution to tahr protection.
Dr. George B. Schaller, the acclaimed American naturalist and field biologist, who stepped into the tahr kingdom in 1969 to study the goats, has dedicated a chapter to the animals, titled "Cloud Goats", in his celebrated work Stones of Silence. "Roaming along the ridges and precipices, I searched for tahrs always hoping that clouds with which they have seemed to have a secret pact would not hide them," he wrote then.
Description
The Nilgiri Tahrs are stocky goats with short, coarse fur and a bristly mane. Males are larger than the females, and have a darker color when mature. Both sexes have curved horns, which are larger in the males, reaching up to 40 cm for males and 30 cm for females. Adult males weigh 80–100 kg and stand about 100 cm tall at the shoulder.
Range and Distribution
The tahrs inhabit the open montane grassland habitat of the South Western Ghats montane rain forests ecoregion. At elevations from 1200 to 2600 m (generally above 2000 m), the forests open into grasslands interspersed with pockets of stunted forests, known as sholas. These grassland habitats and are surrounded by dense forests at the lower elevations. The Nilgiri Tahrs formerly ranged over these grasslands in large herds, but hunting and poaching in the nineteenth century reduced their population to as few as 100 animals by the early 20th century. Since that time their populations have increased somewhat, and presently number about 2000 individuals. Their range extends over 400 km from north to south, and Eravikulam National Park is home to the largest population. The other significant concentration is in the Nilgiri Hills, with smaller populations in the Anamalai Hills (Periyar National Park), Palni Hills and other pockets in the Western Ghats south of Eravikulam, almost to India's southern tip.
Local Names
Vara aadu (Malayalam), Varai aadu (Tamil)
External link
- The Nilgiri Tahr Trust, Kerala, India (http://www.tahrfoundation.org/)
- Goat's own country (http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2303/stories/20060224000206600.htm)
Literature
- Ropiquet, A. & Hassanin, A. 2005. Molecular evidence for the polyphyly of the genus Hemitragus (Mammalia, Bovidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 36(1):154-168, juli 2005.
