Barasingha The Bhoorsingh

 

Hello my blog family, hope you are keeping safe from this 2^nd wave. please take the vaccination as soon as possible this will help us to get rid of the virus to some extent. 

Thank you so much for liking the Trogon bird story. This is now becoming a challenge because of no new trips until things back to normal to some extent and both round of vaccination is done at my end. 

I started searching for a new topic and realized that since January 2021 we have not yet met any animals and hence today I decided to present the story of animals, this is an outcome of the last trip of Kanha. Trust me this story you will like the most because the journey is interesting and inspiring as well, let us meet Mr. Bhoorsingh I mean "The Barasingha"

My Deer Barasingha  

I know it should be Dear and not Deer, the purpose of writing “Deer” because Barasingha is nothing but part of the “Deer” family so I termed it as Deer. Let me first explain the story of my experience with it and then I will update you on facts. I was not aware of Barasingha until Jogi updated us about this lovely creature. He explained why Barasingha (Hard-ground Barasingha) should be the main attraction over the tiger here. Reason no. 1, this reserve is the only place in the world where you can see the Hard Ground Barasingha in the wild. Reason no. 2, Barasingha is a magnificent creature when you see them standing tall in a meadow, with the golden sunlight lighting up their coats. 

Considering expert opinion we spent a good amount of time without thinking about the tiger, we missed the tiger very closely because we took more time with Barasingha but it was worth giving more time to it. You can find a tiger in all tiger reserves but you can find Barasingha only at Kanha hence it makes more sense to shower more love on this special animal. You can see the result in the DSLR section, meanwhile, let us see some exciting facts in the next section.

Fantastic facts

The Barasingha hard-ground swamp deer (Branderi Barasingha) is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh

A LARGE DEER WITH A woolly golden-hued coat, the Barasingha swamp deer gets its name from the many tines on an adult male’s antlers; “Barasingha” means “12-tined” in Hindi 

Stags can actually have up to 20 tines, which gives them a very regal look indeed, for those lucky enough to see these beautiful, elusive animals

Barasinghas generally stick to herbivorous diet, composed of leaves and grass. The Wetland Barasinghas are known to supplement this diet with aquatic vegetation

Barasinghas have a polygynous mating system, where the dominant male mates with a group of females known as a harem. Each male defends his mating rights, engaging in harsh competition and fights with other males

Males of this species are commonly known as 'bucks'. Meanwhile, large males are called 'stags'. Female Barasinghas are known as 'does' and offspring are called 'fawns'

Antlers of these animals are an extension of their bones. When antlers of a young deer emerge, they are usually covered in a layer of 'felt', which has blood vessels in it. When this felt dries, young males remove it and expose their antlers. They get rid of the felt by rubbing against tree bark

There are 3 sub-species of Barasingha: Wetland Barasinghas, occurring in India and Nepal; Hard-ground Barasinghas, having only one population in Madhya Pradesh (India); and finally, Eastern Barasinghas, which form a single population in Assam, north-eastern India

So many qualities are there with this lovely creature, facts are endless but one ugly fact is that once it was on verge of extinction but now it has reached the status of vulnerable. Let me explain the story of extinction to the vulnerable in the next section. 

The Inspiration 

After knowing the interesting part, it is time to know the inspirational part

It was very close to extinction when a successful breeding program and conservation practices at Kanha National Park brought the animals back from the brink

There were only about 60 individuals left in the national park when the conservation program started in the early 1970s

Various conservation methods were used, including habitat improvement and captive breeding, and today there’s an estimated 800 Barasingha in Kanha

The Barasingha is a Kanha success story, which the park celebrated in 2017 by becoming the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot: Bhoorsingh the Barasingha

From 60 to 800 and counting is the true inspiration for all other conservation programs, well managed and proper execution has paid off and results are amazing. Kudos to Kanha for setting up an example of intent, the message to everyone is that with the right intent, you can achieve next to impossible task as well

I hope you enjoyed every bit of it, please shower your blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, and in the end, do not forget to share feedback on btwildart@gmail.com

Learning of the day

Common difference between Barasingha and Sambhar Deer 

The confusion between Sambhar deer and Barasingha is common throughout India. Though they both are from the same family of ‘even-toed ungulates’, they differ from each other

1.  The antlers of Barasingha are wide-open, whereas those of Sambhar deer are more curved

2. The fully-grown Sambhar deer have 4 to 8 branches on antlers. However, Barasingha has 12 or more branches on their antlers. In both species, only males have antlers

DSLR Section