Thesighting of a rare and endangered species of Indian wild dog (Cuon alpinus),locally known as Dhole, inside Kuldiha wildlife sanctuary in Odisha's Balasoredistrict has cheered the forest officials and wildlife lovers.
Onewild dog was spotted near the base camp of Kuldiha. Though forest personnel hadinformed the authorities of coming across the animal a couple of days back, itwas recorded after divisional forest officer (DFO) and other senior officialssighted it on Thursday.
Thewild dogs, which are enlisted as “critically endangered species” in theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list, are found inHimalayas, Trans-Himalayas and peninsular India regions. They have a populationof around 1000 in the country while Odisha counts for only about 30 to35.
DFOKedar Swain said there must be 3 to 4 more dholes in the reserve forest, asthey love to live in packs and always go hunting together. “Perhaps this dogwas a female one and in search of a male counterpart to give birth cubs. Forestofficials have been asked to monitor its movements,” he said.
TheIndian wild dog, also known as Asiatic wild dog is one of the most successfulhunters in the Indian wilderness. Though fearful of humans, dhole packs arebold and ferocious enough to attack large and dangerous animals such as wildboar, water buffalo and even tigers.
Asthe wild dogs are shed loving and prefer to live in dense forests, the sightingof the species is an indicator to the healthy forest of Kuldiha. Since they areendangered species, Swain said, several protective measures had been taken forsafeguarding them.
“Anti-poachingmembers have been sensitized and forest officials asked to check forest fireswhich are detrimental for them. We also have ordered ten cameras to trap theirmovements. The cameras will be installed within a couple of weeks,” hesaid.
Dholesare carnivorous and primarily diurnal hunters, hunting in the daytime.Preferentially, they select male animals as their prey. Though they huntanimals like chital, sambar, mouse deer, swamp deer, wild boar, gaur, cattle,and goats, but deer species, especially spotted deer are their mostfavourite.
Wildlifeexperts are also excited at the rare sighting. A research scholar of NorthOdisha University Subrat Debata has started studying and monitoring theoccurrence of this animal in the region. “We have also collected a few samplesof the wild dog’s scat to ascertain its prey patterns,” the DFO added.