Boss

[Arindam Datta]

this huge,lone male was grazing patiently on a late monsoon afternoon just beside the tar road from mohurli to tadoba lake. with the rocky built,heavy masculine figure and scars left over by the struggle for existence of this member of india largest bovine is a pleasure to eyes in the lush green background. its saga of battles won long ago,in the sea of the momentary greens of the rocky and barren highlands of vidarbha has an air of stillness around.

canon 500D
sigma 150-500mm.
tadoba
october 2k13

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice record of the jungle drama. Scars are visible. A little more brightness would have been fine.
During my visit (May 2005), very near to MTDC Tourist Lodge, a fully grown Gaur was killed by a Tiger during night and it was partly eaten by morning next. Tadoba was then just coming up, we were the only occupants of the lodge. I think, Gaur as a prey species is one of the contributory factors for rise in population of tigers.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice. Agree this could do with a little more brightness...."saga of battles won long ago,in the sea of the momentary greens " very nice.Like the write up.

I feel the Gaurs seen in Deccan and above seem to have a more flat head structure and more widely spaced and laterally extending horns compared to the southern specimens. Any views? Will be nice to hear on this from Shakti da and Patra sab in particular. Im not sure if they are classified as different sub species.

TFS
Roopak

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Roopak Bhai has raised an important point.
"Since my experience of Gaur, with exceptional opportunities for close and prolonged observation differs in some particulars from the accounts of others, some space has been devoted to this animal as well." - Shri M.Krishnan
M. Krishnan has studied the Gaur in the forests of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mysore, A.P, Orissa, Bihar, M.P, and Tadoba. Looking at the morphological characters, he felt that there is no case for distinguishing sub-species on basis of size and colour, there do seem to be two main 'kinds' [a weak word, but no better term available, no taxonomical distinction made] leaving out the light-coloured Gaur said to be found in a part of Tamil Nadu.
I shall only touch upon the diversity of the 'Horn' observed by him supported by a large number of photographs.
Throughout the north of the peninsula, in Orissa, Bihar and M.P, he has seen this smaller kind mostly having smaller and straighter horns (horns not formed in a semi-lunar curve but more like that of short-horned domestic zebu - Bos indicus). In Kanha, he has photographed a small bull with large horizontal horns. Mixed herds has also been seen in some forests.
In Mysore and Tamil Nadu both kinds were seen and in Kerala only the larger.[Horns formed in semi-lunar curves]
A large bull with massive, divergent horns has been photographed in Tamil Nadu also, though in most of the adult bulls there, the horns are not widely divergent [and there is not much of difference from those of cows].
Therefore, bull with horizontal horns, though not common, can be found in both northern and southern peninsula.

Kind regards,
SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Roopak,
I have never critically analysed the horn structure of gaurs of various places. So I am answering from memory. Also, I am travelling and don't have access to most of my images to cross check if my memory is right. Nevertheless, I must admit that I find the gaurs of tadoba well built and some of them have wide diverging horns with the base resembling the width and thickness of the horns of domestic buffaloes. The reason I say base is because, during my childhood days I have observed artists working on domestic buffalo horns to carve combs and also dolls etc. The wide and thick horns of buffaloes are a big help. Gaurs normally don't have such wide horns. However, there are also other gaurs from tadoba and maharashtra where the horns are pointed up and angled in or pointed slightly ahead. So I can't say with certainty that the gaurs of deccan and above look different.

As far as gaurs of Odisha, especially from barbara, if I remember right, their overall body size was smaller. Or may be because they were wiped out and then later on their numbers increased and may be the sample I saw were not the large adults. I haven't been there recently.

Sharing a link here of gaurs dueling with each other. http://youtu.be/JmQi3rP8Puo This was from Tamil Nadu. You may please note the horns.