28.2.09

Sariska’s first couple gets a mate


Fresh company is on its way for Sariska’s lord of the ring. After a tiger and a tigress were relocated from Ranthambore to the poached reserve earlier last year, a second tigress took the relocation flight on Wednesday. An Indian Air Force helicopter brought the over three year-old tigress to its new home. The “transient” tigress was selected from the Gura area of Ranthambore, tranquillized and put into an enclosure at the Naya Pani area of Sariska. After about three days of observation, she would be released into the forest. According to chief wildlife warden R N Mehrotra, this tigress was a transient one shifting between Ranthambore and Sawai Man Singh sanctuaries attempting to curve out its own territory. “We had been observing it for the past four or five months and on Wednesday it was relocated. The tigress is healthy, has a good temperament and is acceptable,” he said. Mehrotra added that the relocation of a second tigress was necessary as the two existing big cats had already mated. “If the tiger wants to mate again and heads towards the same tigress, there may be a threat to its litters from him. But now, with the second tigress in, we have reduced this possibility,” he said.

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