|[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note|
|This was one of the picture which I shot when I visited Munnar in Kerala this year.|
A range of hills known as the western Ghats runs along the West coast of South India. It comes in many different names at various places along the mountains – the Anamalais, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris, the High Ranges, the Cardamom hills. Along the Southern parts of these ranges is the abode of the Nilgiri Tahr - Hemitragus hylocrius. Some areas of these mountains, particularly in Kerala, have small fragmented populations of the tahr, but a vast majority and the only viable population is found in the Eravikulam National Park. This species of tahr is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Mammals; but due to the considerable protection afforded in the last few years, their number is slowly beginning to rise and according to the latest census, Eravikulam National Park has nearly 1,000 Tahrs. The aim of the Nilgiri Tahr Foundation is to ensure that the Tahr population continues this way!
Tahrs belong to the family Bovidae which also includes other even-toed, horned ungulates such as cattle and antelope. They are considered primitive cousins of true goats (Capra spp.) since they possess certain characters of primitive goat-antelopes such as a similarity of horn size in both males and females, and certain other features that characterise true goats, such as striking coat colour differences between the sexes, and the presence of odoriferous glands.
The Nilgiri tahr is a stocky goat in which both sexes have a short, coarse pelage and a bristly mane a few centimeters long, in contrast to the male Himalayan tahr which has a long, shaggy mane on the shoulders, throat and chest. The pelage of sub adults, females, and young males is dusky brown to grey-brown in colour except for a whitish abdomen and a dark brown band that runs down the length of the back. There is also a conspicuous dark spot just above the carpal joint or knee. The horns curve sharply backwards and are about 30 cm. long in females. The front of the horn of the Nilgiri tahr is almost flat with the keel confined to the inner edge, whereas the horn of the Himalayan tahr has a prominent keel in front.
Adult males are handsome creatures, weighing an estimated 80-100 kg. and standing about 100 cm. tall at the shoulders, considerably larger than the females. Their pelage is dark brown, almost black, except for their grizzled white lower back, sides, and sometimes also the nimp, a feature responsible for their being called 'saddlebacks' by sportsmen. The sides of the neck, too, are often grey. The abdomen and throat are white, and a pale streak runs from each ear down the side of-the muzzle and a light-coloured ring surrounds each eye. The spot above the carpal joint is white, rather than black as in the other animals. Their horns are up to about 40 cm. long and some 22 cm. in circumference at the base, both longer and more massive than those of females.
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