JAIPUR: A tiger, which had been missing for the past nine years, has been spotted in Ranthambore National Park.
The tiger -- T 38 -- had not been spotted in Ranthambore and believed to have crossed over to Kuno Wildlife in Madhya Pradesh where he was captured in cameras for the past several years. Now, he has once again had an interesting "Ghar Wapsi" and has been seen in Ranthambore Park again.
The big cat is 13 and was seen on October 19 in Kundera sanctuary. The animal was last seen on November 15 in the Taleda range. Officials of the Ranthambore Park said that tigress T13's male cub T 38 had ventured in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno Wildlife region at the age of 4. He was there for 9 years but has now come back home.
"Tiger T 38 has returned to Ranthambore and his movement is restricted to the Kundera and Taleda region for the time being. T38 migrated from Ranthambore in 2011 and when it was tracked down in Kuno Palpur wildlife sanctuary in MP which is over 150 km away. Every tiger has unique stripes on the skin. In October, we received Photographs of tigers that didn't match with any of the IDs of our tigers. When we received the photo for the second time, the tiger's left-right side stripes matched with T38 which had gone to MP about nine years ago." Said Sanjeev Sharma, ACF Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.
Tiger is a solitary and territorial animal and as it becomes an adult it doesn't share its territory with other big cats and the strong ones push the weak. Ranthambore reserve has 69 Tigers out of which 44 are adults and 25 are sub-adults and cubs. Park has a carrying capacity of 45 adult Tigers. In each territory of a male adult tiger generally, there are 2-3 female tigresses.
There has been an increase in the number of tigers in Ranthambore National Park over the last few years. This leads to frequent fights between tigers for territory. Some tigers have been killed in such confrontations.
"Tigers are more in numbers in Ranthambore and that's the reason why the animals migrate to other regions. T38 is around 13-years-old and at this age, tigers usually don't migrate. Maybe a young male tiger acquired the territory of this tiger and since he knew the track he returned back", added Sharma.