Endangered crocodiles, snakes and turtles

October 11, 2011 08:31 am | Updated August 02, 2016 08:25 am IST - MANGALORE:

Hissing king cobras

Hissing king cobras

Dr. Shivarama Karantha Biological Park at Pilikula has Gharial, a crocodile, which eats only fish.

This is an endangered Indian species of crocodile, according to Scientific Officer of the park Jerald Vikram Lobo.

The crocodile, with elongated and narrow snout, is fed with 750 gm of fish daily.

In addition, there are four marsh crocodiles. They are fed with meat and chicken thrice a week.

There are four turtle species, including the endangered Indian black turtle. Others are flap shell turtle, Indian star tortoise and the exotic red-eared turtle.

Except star tortoise, others are fed with meat and algae. Star tortoise eats vegetables and leaves.

Director of the park H.J. Bhandary said that the park had nine endangered herbivorous mouse deer and 40 black bucks. The park had 14 barking deer, 20 sambars and 40 spotted deer. Apart from green leaves, they are fed with horse gram, wheat brawn, and vegetables. The park has three elephants, two adults and a calf.

The park has venomous snakes such as hump nosed pit viper, king cobra, Indian cobra, Russel's viper, common krait, Malabar pit viper and saw scaled viper. There are 14 non-venomous snake species of which Whitaker's boa and mountain trinket snake is endemic in the Western Ghats.

P.L. Dharma, head of the Department of Political Science, Mangalore University, was one of the visitors to the park on Sunday.

He said the animals looked healthy and the park had been maintained well. Another feature at the park is that many animals have been adopted. Mr. Bhandary said the park was looking forward for more adoptions.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.