Nagpur updates: A rare sloth bear (Meliursus Ursinus) was registered in the Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) wildlife division of Sipna at Maharashtra.
The bear was captured in camera traps on April 3 during the ongoing phase IV enumeration exercise being conducted jointly by the State Forest Department and Dehradun’s Wildlife Institute of India (WII) Leukism is a recessive condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal causing white, pale or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers or scales but not of the eyes.
The white tigers of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, white lions of South Africa and white giraffe of Kenya are some well-known examples of leukism in wildlife. Sometimes those animals are revered as sacred.
APCCF & Melghat filed director MS Reddy said, “In India, 2016 a record of a sloth bear with a rusty-brown coat from the Dahod forests in Gujarat was recorded. Such individuals have a low chance of survival because their color makes them more vulnerable to predation.
“Reddy said the leuctical sloth bear reported in Melghat appears to be an adult female and was photographed in a camera trap with another human, likely a male, of the normal black coat. With its rugged mountainous terrain and thick forest, the 2,800sqkm tiger reserve hosts a stable sloth bear population.
Melghat is a ‘natural oasis’ in the northern part of Maharashtra, and from a wildlife conservation point of view, has great significance.
