Archive for the 'wildlife' Category

The Lynx is a critically endangered member of the cat family. It is found in parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. Unlike its cousins, the tigers, lions and leopards, a Lynx is comparatively small.

The animal in these pictures resembles a Lynx in its appearance. It was found lying injured and unconscious in a village near Sopore 35 miles north-west of Srinagar. A vet Dr. Mir Wahid Ahmad Nazki tried to revive the animal but because of injuries received on its skull, the animal died shortly.

Dr. Nazki who is a keen wildlife enthusiast immediately identified the animal as the endangered Lynx. It is relevant to mention here that no report of a Lynx sighting has even been officially made in the Kashmir valley. It’s only in the north-eastern region of Ladakh (especially Nubra Valley) that Lynx are seen. However, Dr. Nazki is very confident of his conclusion and has no doubts over the animal being a Lynx. According to him the cat which weighed up to 4 Kg’s was a juvenile which might have accidently strayed in to the village.

We are publishing the pictures here and hope our readers can confirm whether the animal is a Lynx or not. If it is, as Dr. Wahid Nazki claims, it gives hope to the conservation efforts and future of this rare and threatened specie of cats. Maybe nature is giving us another chance to protect this beautiful animal.

Dr. Wahid Nazki

The bear in these pictures was reported by local residents (in a hamlet along the city forest) to be a voracious carnivore having eaten many livestock and humans too, apart from destroying standing crops in their fields.

The competent authorities along with a paranoid public tried to capture the bear and somehow in the excitement (I don’t wish to give the exact reasons), the bear, a fully grown male, died.

From the post-mortem no trace of any animal/human meal was found, all it had had were wild fruits.

A good deposit of sub-cutaneous and peritoneal fat

Just emptying the bladder

The stomach is full of fruit; notice the polythene bag, even the wild animals are not safe from our mindless violation of the environment.

The much sought after and one of the resons for mindless killing of bears – the gall bladder filled with bile. Much in demand because of its use in Chinese medicine, a Kg of bile powder costs $600 (US) in China, while in Japan a whole gall bladder like the one in this picture can fetch up to $33,000 (US) per Kg.

A wasted bear; could this have been prevented???

The leopard in these images was found dead in the outskirts of Kupwara forest. Post-mortem on the animal was carried out at the Veterinary Hospital, Sopore.
The leopard was a fully grown male, weighing approximately 70 Kgs, robust in appearance and unlikely to have died of any ordinary reason. The post-mortem examination (pending histopathology) was largely inconclusive.

Pic credits: Dr. Mir Wahid Nazki