Bihar's Valmiki Tiger Reserve finds four more species in its premises

NEW DELHI: Bihar'sValmiki Tiger Reserve has added four more species to its baseline: crab-eating mongoose, hoary-bellied squirrel, Himalayan serow and yellow-throated marten. The evidence of their presence was recorded through "camera traps".

"The last Zoological Survey of India report from 1998 recorded 53 mammals at the Valmiki Tiger Reserve. These species were not recorded then," says Dr Samir Kumar Sinha, the regional head of the Wildlife Trust of India, who has been working at the tiger reserve.

He says the reasons for the appearance of these four mammal species could be linked to changes in habitat. It is also possible that these were simply never spotted before. "The Himalayan serow and the crab-eating mongoose are present in Nepal's Chitwan National Park, which is contiguous with Valmiki Tiger Reserve. There too, they exist in higher altitudes. They are small nocturnal mammals, so there is a chance that they were missed earlier," says Dr Sinha.

Dr Sinha says the discovery was made over a period of a year, with the Himalayan Serow, the yellow throated marten and the crab-eating mongoose being discovered between the months of May and July. Dr Sinha has been working at the tiger reserve for 10 years now. He started laying camera traps (which use motion-sensing technology to capture images) sometime in 2005.