Relocated tigress in Sariska may be pregnant

NEW DELHI: Two tigers relocated from Ranthambore to Sariska reserve two months ago are now "well settled" but they are showing no eagerness towards mating leading experts to suspect that the tigress may already be pregnant.

The movements of the two are being tracked through several methods including satellite images obtained from Canada-based Argos. The animals are also wearing radio collars with very high frequency transmitters.

An analysis of their movement shows that they have settled well but there were "no signs of female seeking or showing any eagerness to look for a male companion for mating," experts said.

"It's already been two months since they were first released here. As there are no signs so far of tigress looking for male as usually is the case in the species, it might be possible that she is already pregnant and is ready to produce off-springs," said K Sankar, a senior scientist from Wildlife Institute of India.

However, the officials said the four-year-old Tigress' health status will be clear only after August-end as the gestation period is three months for predators like them.

Apart from her movements, there are other strong reasons to believe that she may have already conceived when she was brought to Sariska, Sankar, who is one of the team members monitoring the tigers, said.

"She was already in her mature stage (for mating) when she was picked from her earlier home in Ranthambore. So our guess that she is pregnant might be true," he added.

The satellite images show that the relocated tiger and tigress have adjusted to the new habitat in the park spread over 815 squire kilometre area with a rich prey base.