Resident tiger population in Nilgiris division believed to be on the rise

‘Camera traps indicate the presence of around 34 tigers in the division’

A resident population of tigers could be thriving in the high-altitude Shola forests in the Nilgiris forest division, rather than simply be using the landscape as a corridor to move between different traditional tiger habitats as was previously believed, argue researchers.

They recently published their findings on “Factors influencing survival of tiger and leopard in high-altitude ecosystem of the Nilgiris” in Zoology and Ecology (Acta Zoologica Lituanica).The researchers analysed 182 scat samples of tigers and leopards in the Nilgiris forest division, with molecular analysis showing that 67 samples belonged to tigers and 95 to leopards. The remaining samples could not be identified as belonging to either species.

Based on analysis of the scat of the two main carnivores in the Western Ghats, researchers observed that tigers and leopards both seemed to rely heavily on a diet of Sambar deer and wild boar. Tigers also had been recorded to have preyed on buffalo, black-naped hare, barking deer, gaur, spotted deer and mouse deer, though in much lesser proportion than when compared to their reliance on Sambar deer and gaur.