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| Animals |
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 |  | King
Cobra
Its size, deadliness, intelligence and ability to rear up and look a human straight
in the eye have earned it a name that is more like a title: the King Cobra. The
world's longest venomous snake, with a bite potent enough to kill an elephant.
It averages 3.7 m (12 ft) in length but is known to grow to 5.5 m (18
ft). It is a thin snake, olive or brown in color, with bronze eyes. It is considered
to be the most intelligent of all snakes. King cobras are generally found in dense
or open rainforests, as well as swamps, bamboo thickets, and even around human
settlements. They are excellent swimmers, often being found near streams, and
are avid tree climbers.
Their head is small and rounded, with large scales
edged in black. The body is slender, and the tail is long and tapering. Coloration
ranges from yellow-olive to brownish black. The snake can raise its head to a
third of its length and may even move forward while upright. It has a loud, intimidating
hiss resembling a dog's growl. It sometimes assumes an upright posture to see
farther. The king cobra is an active hunter.
The king cobra can live
up to 20 years. It lives longer in captivity than in the wild. It can deliver
up to 12 oz of venom in one bite. It is capable of eating a 3 year old cow. King
cobras shed their skin 4-6 times per year for adults and every month for juveniles.
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 | | Great
Pied Hornbill
The largest of the nine hornbill species found on the Indian subcontinent, the
Great Pied hornbill also has one of the widest ranges, living everywhere from
sea level to heights of nearly 5,000 feet. Doing justice to its name, the Great
Pied hornbill can have wingspans of nearly five feet, with tails that can measure
three feet. It is an incredibly beautiful bird as well, covered in black plumage,
with a yellow bill that curves downward. Most distinctively, the hornbill's head
is topped with an ivory formation, also known as a casque.
The Great Pied
hornbill's diet consists mostly of fruit, which it collects inside its beak during
feedings. Incredibly, the hornbill has reportedly been able to consume as many
as 150 figs within one meal. This is invaluable for Great Pied hornbill pairs,
which mate for life. A male hornbill will collect as much food as it can, swallow
it, and then return to its mate, and regurgitate the meal into her mouth. It isn't
pretty, but it's very effective for a hornbill mother, who is unable to leave
her young.
The female Great Pied hornbill's inability to leave her young
is a story unto itself. She seals herself inside the hollow of a tree using her
own feces (males help with the process from the outside), and stays there until
her young are born. |
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 | | Barkingdeer
This shy
and elusive member of the deer family is spread across all the dense jungles of
India. It has been named after its call, which bears a striking resemblance to
the bark of dog. These animals grow to a height of 50 - 75 cms and weigh 20 -30
kgs. They have a life expectancy of between 20 - 30 years. They mostly live in
solitude and are only very rarely seen in numbers exceeding two. Due to their
low height and small stature, their main diet consists of grass and fallen fruits.
They rarely venture out into open grasslands and are mostly seen feeding near
the edge of dense forests. They can also be frequently seen at salt licks like
the one shown in the picture below. They are mostly diurnal in habit but it is
close to impossible to see them at night due to their dense habitat areas. Their
alarm call, unless endlessly repeated, is not taken seriously as an indication
of the presence of a predator. They are easily startled by any movement.
A unique trait of the Barking deer is that, unlike other members of the deer family,
they possess a pair of antlers as well as overgrown canines known as tushes. Both
these are used as weapons in combat but the tushes are used more effectively and
frequently. | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 | | Serow
Goat-like,
the serow stands about 3.5 feet at the shoulder with a stocky body, thick neck,
large head and ears, and short limbs. Its horns are stout and conical, pointed
backwards, and present in both sexes. Serow are generally colored black or reddish
chestnut with white on their limbs, and they inhabit forests and wooded gorges.
Usually, serow are solitary, and can be found from 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet in
the mountains. The
serow can be seen in the Neora valley. |
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 | | Himalayan
Black Bear
The
Asiatic black bear's scientific name, Ursus thibetanus, literally means "moon
bear of Tibet". This bear is also commonly called the Tibetan black bear, the
Himalayan black bear, Formosan black bear, collared bear or the white-breasted
bear due to its crescent-moon-shaped patch of white hair on its chest.
The Asiatic black bear favors thickly forested areas in the hill and mountains
and moist tropical forests below alpine levels. During the summer period, the
Asiatic black bear can be found at altitudes of 1,000 feet. Their typical territory
ranges from four to eight square miles, but depends drastically upon available
food sources. In other words, the less concentrated the food supply, the larger
the area that the Asiatic black bear must travel to obtain the necessary food
to survive.
The weight is highly variable depending on the climate conditions
and food availability. Asiatic black bear are typically four to six feet tall.
This wonderful animal can be seen the Neora valley, Buxa etc. |
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 | | Fishing
cat
Native
to riverbanks from India through Southeast Asia, these cats love to fish. They
have partially webbed paws, and a double layer of fur so when they go in the water
they don't get wet down to the skin. They don't have full claw sheaths (similar
to the cheetah) so their claws are partially visible even when retracted. In the
wild they are listed as Near Threatened.
Although they have a substantial
range in tropical Asia (over 1 million square kilometers), its actual area of
occupancy is much smaller as it is strongly associated with wetlands. Water pollution
and forest clearance for settlement threaten the species through much of its range.
Deforestation rates in tropical Asia's wetlands are quite high, resulting in similar
decline among the fishing cat populations. |
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 | | Python
The Indian
python is a highly arboreal snake, once fairly common throughout the jungles of
India, Sri Lanka, and the East Indies. It can grow to a length of about 20 feet
(6 m).
Like the boas and anacondas of the Americas, the python is a constrictor,
a snake that kills its prey by squeezing. Mammals are preferred prey, but pythons
will also eat birds, other animals, even fish (pythons often live near water and
are good swimmers).
Pythons drape across tree branches, camouflaged by
their light and dark patterned skin, waiting to ambush their next meal. They grab
their prey with a quick lashing out of the head, then wrap themselves around the
prey so it cannot breathe. A large python could squeeze the life out of a deer,
and amazingly enough, the python could then swallow it whole. After such a big
meal, the snake may not have to eat again for as long as a year! There are very
few authenticated accounts of humans being attacked by pythons, though it certainly
is possible since the largest python recorded was over 32 feet (9.8 m) long. |
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 | | Black-necked
crane
Black-necked cranes are the fifth rarest and the least known of all the cranes.
They were the last species of crane discovered and described by ornithologists,
due to the remoteness of their range.
While on their wintering areas,
black-necked cranes seem quite tolerant of humans, perhaps because of local religious
beliefs that protect them across much of their range.
The sighting of this
rare bird in Buxa in Northbengal recently has brought a new enthusiasm in the
bird lovers and the wild life department. | |
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