Rivals or partners?: wolf and hyena share the same bowl in south western Bengal
The Hindu
Much of the suitable habitat lies within human-modified lands and the species use this landscape for movement among suitable habitat patches, finds ZSI study
The Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena known to be rival species are showing tolerant behaviour towards each other, in terms of the patches they occupy to utilise the livestock resource as prey in semi-arid regions of West Bengal, a recent study by scientists of Zoological Survey of India and the West Bengal Forest Department has pointed out. The details of the study have been published in a paper titled, ‘Indian Grey Wolf and Striped Hyena sharing from the same bowl: High niche overlap between top predators in a human-dominated landscape’ published in international science journal Global Ecology and Conservation. “We found that both the species, which are generally known rivals showing tolerance towards each other, which is a strong evidence of land sharing among the species in the landscape. We also found significant level of biological connectivity between the overlapping suitable habitat patches of both the species,” said Dr. Lalit Kumar Sharma, lead author and head of the wildlife section of ZSI.Amidst continuing protest over the murder of Anjali Ambiger in Hubballi, Home Minister G. Parameshwara, who visited the victim’s family on Monday, announced in a press conference that like the Neha Hiremath case, this too would be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for inquiry.
Budding businesswomen engaged in producing ecologically sustainable products got an opportunity to improve their visibility, thanks to a programme launched by Tiruchi Regional Engineering College – Science and Technology Entrepreneurs (TREC-STEP) in collaboration with online platform Maheela Power recently