A group of conservationists studying and camera-trapping leopards in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary has stumbled upon an Indian grey wolf (Canis lumpus pallipes), in what is reckoned to be its first-ever documentation in Chamarajanagar district.
Previous studies in the district undertaken in Cauvery and M.M. Hills wildlife sanctuaries, BRT Tiger Reserve, and Bandipur Tiger Reserve had not documented the Indian grey wolf.
What is significant is that this indicates the presence of all four large canid species found in southern India (dhole, Indian wolf, jackal, and Bengal fox) in Chamarajanagar.
The presence of the Indian grey wolf was documented by Sanjay Gubbi of Nature Conservation Foundation and his team while they were camera-trapping for studying leopards. The study team consists of Sandesh Appu Naik, M.N. Girish, Gnanendra, H.C. Poornesha and others.
Mr. Gubbi said in a release that the wolf was camera-trapped in Kothnur range of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary recently. “This is possibly the first-ever photographic evidence of wolf presence in Chamarajanagar district. This record also documents the southernmost limit of wolf presence in Karnataka,” he said.
In Karnataka, the wolf is found in isolated pockets in the drier areas, including Haveri, Koppal, Tumakuru, Raichur, and Ballari, according to Mr. Gubbi. A highly endangered and threatened Indian grey wolf species mostly survives on grasslands, scrub forests, and rarely in dry deciduous forests.
“Though the species is distributed widely, it is threatened largely because of habitat loss and retaliatory killing. Indian wolf numbers are suspected to be lower than that of tigers. They are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,” said Mr. Gubbi.
He said this study on leopards had yielded very valuable information on other species. Incidentally, in 2014, such a study had documented for the first time in Karnataka the presence of the honey badger.
In 2015, it recorded a new population of chinkara in Tumakuru district; it was later notified as Bukkapatna Chinakara Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2018, this study documented the easternmost limit of the brown mongoose in BRT Tiger Reserve. In Karnataka, brown mongoose was never recorded outside Virajpet taluk before the study by Mr. Gubbi, the release said.
