In Forests of Dooars, North Bengal

[Wolverine]

(01-23-2019, 09:29 AM)Rishi Wrote:

(01-22-2019, 03:25 AM)Wolverine Wrote: Amazing. In one single trip you put in the basket all tree mega-herbivores - rhino, elephant and gaur. For sure highly successful trip!

Actually sighting the Big 3 is more or less guaranteed here... In only 4 days i came across (not always seen, nor myself) elephants & rhinos twice, gaurs thrice.

Due to absence of tigers the numbers of herbivores have reached carrying capacity in all forests here other than Buxa. Leopards have increased to the point that all forest adjoining tea-gardens have leopards in them.

Leopard feeding on gaur calf in a tea garden, could be NB. Source: https://m.phys.org/news/2017-05-tea-time...india.html ©Kalyan Verma

*This image is copyright of its original author

Surplus one-horned rhinos were being planned to be moved from Jaldapara and Gorumara National Parks to Buxa Tiger Reserve & Patlakhawa Reserve Forest, don't know its present status though.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Concerning density of giant herbivores this area is probably second only after Kaziranga. Actually I guess in terms of biomass  (kilograms per square kilometer) of big animals Kaziranga could rival even Africa. We could calculate. Kaziranga has territory only 430 sq kms while Serengeti -  ar. 14 500. But in this small territory (Kaziranga) there are:
-2400 rhinos 
-1900 elephants
- 1660 wild buffaloes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaziranga_National_Park

While Serengeti plains have an astronomical quantity of wilderbeast, zebra and impala - 2,5 miilion, their average mass is much lower than average mass of Kaziranga herbivores, the elephants in Serengeti are not that much, and rhinos almost none. Here we need to find the average weight of wilderbeast, zebra, impala, giraffe multiply by their numbers and devide to the territory of the park.
In same way we have to find average weight of Indian rhino, Indian elephant, water buffalo, multiply by their numbers and devide to the territory of the park.
I would be not surprised that in this way the calculated biomass per sq. km in Kaziranga will be not that far from the digits from Africa. Reply