Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve: Post-Mortem Points to Starvation, Porcupine Clash in Tigress Death
Tigress NSTR T-66F, is reportedly one of the several females that are monitored closely, particularly during the monsoon season which is the breeding period for tigers
Hyderabad:The story of a tiger, the carcass of which was found in the Indireshwaram beat of Nagaluty range in the core area of Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NTSR) this past week, may well be one for the story books — about a mother’s desperate love to feed her newborns, and taking risks only a mother would.
The dead tiger, one of the two big cat fatalities in NSTR within days, was identified as a female given the number NSTR T-66F, according to NSTR officials. She was found by field staff while on a regular patrol on July 29.
The forest department in a clarification made it clear none of the tigress’ body parts was missing, and that there was no evidence of any snaring or other means of foul play leading to her death. It also said that samples were collected from the carcass and sent for forensic and disease analysis to government laboratories, and that the results were awaited.
What was not said was the story of a tigress that just days before gave birth to a litter of cubs, and what her life may have been the days before she died.
Tigress NSTR T-66F, is reportedly one of the several females that are monitored closely, particularly during the monsoon season which is the breeding period for tigers. It is learnt that one of the camera trap images of the tigress captured in the first week of July showed her apparently heavily pregnant. Another image captured three weeks later, showed that the animal had lost a lot of weight and appeared to be starving.
When the carcass was examined after its discovery, it was found that the tigress had been starving, there was no evidence that it had fed recently, and that it had an encounter with a porcupine as one quill was found embedded in its body, and that the tigress was desperate enough to make any kill, even a prickly porcupine, with the encounter ending badly for the tigress.
Of its cubs, their number may never be known.
Concerned over the fate of the just born cubs, it is learnt that nearly a dozen teams of forest personnel fanned out in the tigress’ territory and combed through it but no trace of the cubs could be found with expectations that the helpless cubs may have fallen prey to other carnivores such as wild dogs.
