India tiger awaits mate after 'longest' 3,000 km journey
18 Nov 2020
Fondly
called Walker by wildlife officials, the now three-and-a-half-year-old
male left its home in a wildlife sanctuary in the western state of
Maharashtra in June last year. He was possibly in search of prey,
territory or a mate.
Fitted with a radio collar, he travelled
some 3,000 km (1,864 miles) through seven districts in Maharashtra and
the neighbouring state of Telangana over nine months before "settling
down" in another sanctuary in Maharashtra in March. The collar was
removed in April.
The 205-sqkm Dnyanganga sanctuary is home to
leopards, blue bull, wild boar, peafowl and spotted deer. Walker is the
only tiger living there, say wildlife officials.
"He has no
territorial issues. And he has adequate prey," Nitin Kakodkar, the
senior-most forest official of Maharashtra state told the BBC.
Now
wildlife officials are mulling whether they should move a female tiger
to the sanctuary to give Walker a mating partner, a move which will be
"quite unprecedented".
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