The Hangul is the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir. They are also called as Barasingha, the Kashmiri name Hangul is derived from the Stags’ love for horse chestnuts (Aesculus indica – Han in Kashmiri) .

The Hangul weigh upto 400 lbs and grow antlers as large as 47 inches in length. They have been declared endangered and their numbers have dwindled over the years. The Dachigam National Park is the official reserve for their protection. However, in absence of quality veterinary-medical support and any captive breeding program, is it a matter of time before we will see them in pictures only?

A rat snake was captured* and found to be suffering from a a bad tick infestation. You can see a tick under one of the scale in the second picture and a removed tick in the third.

Though Snakes do harbor ecto-parasites but its rare to find extensive infestations. Since these ticks suck blood, tick infestations depending on their severity cause weakness, anemia and sometimes even death. Also many disease especially protozoan, are transmitted by the ticks.

Treatment is aimed at removal, which may be done manually or using topically applied tick poisons.

(* One of our readers shot me an email telling us how cruel we were in capturing a snake  and how shameless we look posing with it just to take a picture. I therefore thought it prudent to add the conditions in which the snake in picture was captured. The snake was caught in the kitchen of a local CRPF camp which it used to raid on a daily basis and where the cook and other personnel were so irritated with it that had it not been captured and relocated it would have eventually been killed or seriously maimed. As much hurtful and uninformed our distingushed readers views were I wish to inform him with humility that capturing a snake is no childish task especially in Kashmir without any specialised equipment and the snake did at least get relief from the ticks infesting it. Even in absense of this context our aim in publishing these pictures was not to gloat over capturing a snake or rendering treatment to it -it being our job as vets-   but to report a case of tick infestation in a wild snake.)

Images: Dr Shabir Ahmad Mir

Cervus elaphus hanglu is listed as endangered