A Royal Bengal Tiger, which has been spotted in a forest in Odisha, has travelled more than 2,000 km across four states, perhaps in search of a partner to mate at a suitable territory, a forester said on Thursday. The same big cat was earlier found in a Maharashtra forest, he said.
The male tiger, whose stripe pattern was found to be similar to a big cat photographed in a forest in Maharashtra, has been sighted in the Mahendra forest range in Odisha’s Gajapati district since September, Paralakhemundi divisional forest officer S Anand told PTI over the phone.
Indian Forest Officer (IFS) Parveen Kaswan recently took to Twitter and shared the story of a tiger, who walked for 2000km, in search of a partner.
However, social media was able to find the light of the whole story and let their creative juices flow to come up with the most hilarious comments.
This may likely be the 2nd-longest tiger dispersal in the country. The tiger crossed many hurdles including water bodies, rivers, agricultural fields, roads, and human habitats. Yet, there is no record of the animal attacking humans along the way.
According to the conservation website Mongabay, tiger habitats in India are fragmented and highly mosaic, often interspersed with human-dominated landscapes. Therefore, the movement or dispersal of tigers is important to establish new territory and for survival. Most tiger dispersals recorded worldwide have been traversed by males in response to competition for mates or resources or both whereas females tend to stay in their area of birth.
Generally, forest departments come to know about such dispersal only when tigers are radio-collared, but the one from Bramhapuri in Vidarbha was not radio-collared and was identified by the pattern of its stripes.
