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Royal Manas National Park
Royal Manas National Park is Bhutan's oldest national park, and the Royal government considers it the "conservation showpiece of the Kingdom" and a "genetic depository" for valuable plants. It has an area of and covers eastern Sarpang District, the western half of Zhemgang District, and western Pemagatshel District. It is connected via "biological corridors" to Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary, Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, Phrumsengla National Park, and Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary. Royal Manas also directly abuts the World Heritage Site Manas National Park in Assam, India, to the south. It is listed as a tentative site in Bhutan's Tentative List for UNESCO inclusion. Entry is prohibited to the public. History Royal Manas was one of the earliest focuses of the Bhutan Trust Fund in the early 1990s, receiving infrastructure development and baseline biological and socio-economic assessments. Bhutan's first park management plan was prepared for Royal Manas, and guided ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pemagatshel District
Pemagatshel District ( Dzongkha: པདྨ་དགའ་ཚལ་་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Pema-gatshel rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 Dzongkhags (districts) in Bhutan. Until 1970 the district was known as Khoi Dung. Dudjom Rinpoche named the district ''Pemagatshel'' which translates to "Blissful Land of the Lotus"- ''Pema'' means the Lotus and ''gatshel'' is blissful land. It is said that if one stands at the location of old Pemagatshel dzong and look around, the place resemble a full bloomed lotus. Dzongkhag profile Pemagatshel is located in the south east of Bhutan with an area of 517.8 km2 and has a total of 2,547 households. The dzongkhag is characterized by highly dissected mountain ranges, steep slopes and narrow valleys with little flat land. The elevation in the dzongkhag ranges from 1,000 meters to 3,500 meters above the sea level. The dzongkhag experiences an average annual rainfall of 1500 mm to 3000 mm. The dzongkhag is administrati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf Forests
The Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests is a temperate broadleaf forest ecoregion found in the middle elevations of the eastern Himalayas, including parts of Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. These forests have an outstanding richness of wildlife. Setting This ecoregion covers an area of and constitutes a band of temperate broadleaf forests lying on steep mountain slopes of the Himalayas between approximately . It extends from the Kali Gandaki River in Nepal across Sikkim and West Bengal in India, Bhutan, the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and neighboring Myanmar. China's Chayu Nature Reserve also has a very small part of this ecoregion. The temperate broadleaf forests transition into the Himalayan subtropical pine forests and the Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests at lower elevations, and into the Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests at higher elevations. This area receives over 2000 mm of rainfall per year, mostly falling from May to September during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wreathed Hornbill
The wreathed hornbill (''Rhyticeros undulatus'') is an Old World tropical bird of the hornbill family Bucerotidae, also called bar-pouched wreathed hornbill due to its distinctive blue-black band on its lower throat sac. It is named after its characteristic long, curved bill that develops ridges, or wreaths, on the Casque (anatomy), casque of the Maxilla, upper mandible in adults. Males are black with a rufous crown, a white upper breast and face, and a yellow featherless throat. Females are uniformly black with a blue throat and are slightly smaller than males. The wreathed hornbill ranges across the foothills and evergreen forests of Northeast India and Bhutan to Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands. It is a frugivore and feeds mainly on large fruits, which it swallows whole leaving the seeds intact. This feeding behaviour plays an important ecological role for the long-distance seed dispersal in forest ecosystems. The wreathed hornbill is threatened by hunt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufous-necked Hornbill
The rufous-necked hornbill (''Aceros nipalensis'') is a species of hornbill in Bhutan, northeastern India, especially in Arunachal Pradesh, Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is locally extinct in Nepal due to hunting and significant loss of habitat. There are less than 10,000 adults left in the wild. With a length of about , it is among the largest Bucerotine hornbills. The underparts, neck and head are pigmented as a rich rufous in the male, but black in the female. Taxonomy The scientific name ''Buceros nipalensis'' was coined for the rufous-necked hornbill by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1829 who described several rufous-necked hornbills caught by hunters in sal forests in Nepal. The species was placed in the genus ''Aceros'' by Hodgson in 1844. The authorship of the genus name has sometimes been credited to John Edward Gray but Gray was the editor not the author of the list. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''akerōs'' meaning "hornless". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hornbill
Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper mandible. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae (the atlas and axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill. The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly insular species of hornbill with small ranges are threatened with extinction, mainly in Southeast Asia. In the Neotropical realm, toucans occupy the hornbills' ecological niche, an example of convergent evolution. Despite their close appearances, the two groups are not very closely related, with toucans being allied with the woodpeckers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Water Buffalo
The wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee''), also called Asian buffalo, Asiatic buffalo and wild buffalo, is a large bovine native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as ''Endangered'' in the IUCN Red List since 1986, as the remaining population totals less than 4,000. A population decline of at least 50% over the last three generations (24–30 years) is projected to continue. The global population has been estimated at 3,400 individuals, of which 95% live in India, mostly in Assam. The wild water buffalo is the most likely ancestor of the domestic water buffalo. Taxonomy ''Bos arnee'' was the scientific name proposed by Robert Kerr in 1792 who described a skull with horns of a buffalo zoological specimen from Bengal in northern India. The specific name ''arnee'' is derived from Hindi ''arnī'', which referred to a female wild water buffalo; the term is related to Sanskrit ''áraṇya'' ("forest") and ''áraṇa'' ("strange, foreign.") ''Bubalus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One-horned Rhinoceros
''Rhinoceros'' is a genus comprising one-horned rhinoceroses. This scientific name was proposed by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The genus contains two species, the Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis'') and the Javan rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros sondaicus''). Although both members are threatened, the Javan rhinoceros is one of the most endangered large mammals in the world with only 60 individuals surviving in Java (Indonesia). The word 'rhinoceros' means "nose-horn" in Ancient Greek. Etymology The genus name ''Rhinoceros'' comes from the Ancient Greek words ῥινο- (''rhino-''), meaning "of the nose" and κέρας (''kerás''), meaning "horn". Classification The genus ''Rhinoceros'' comprises: *Indian rhinoceros (''R. unicornis'') Indian subcontinent *Javan rhinoceros (''R. sondaicus'') Southeast Asia *†'' R. sivalensis'' Falconer and Cautley, 1846 northern Indian subcontinent (Siwalik Hills) Pliocene-Early Pleistocene *†'' R. platyrhinus'' Falconer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganges River Dolphin
The Ganges river dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') is a species of freshwater dolphin classified in the family Platanistidae. It lives in the Ganges and related rivers of South Asia, namely in the countries of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It is related to the much smaller Indus river dolphin which lives in the rivers of the Indus Basin in Pakistan and northwestern India. It is also known by the name susu (popular name) also shihu () in Assam and shushuk () in West Bengal and Bangladesh., page 451 etter Aand page 568 etter S The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the Government of India as its National Aquatic Animal and is the official animal of the Indian city of Guwahati. Its first occurrence, within the Hooghly River, was documented by William Roxburgh. Description The Ganges river dolphin has a rectangular, ridgelike dorsal fin and females tend to be larger than males. Ganges river dolphins usually are tan, chocolate brown, dark grey or light blue. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispid Hare
The hispid hare (''Caprolagus hispidus''), also known as the Assam rabbit and bristly rabbit, is a species of rabbit native to South Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Caprolagus''. Named for its bristly fur coat, the hispid hare is a rabbit with dark-brown fur and a large nose. It has small ears compared to the Indian hare, a lagomorph that occurs in the same regions as the hispid hare. Once thought to be extinct, the hispid hare was rediscovered in Assam in 1971 and has been found in isolated populations across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Its historic range extended along the southern foothills of the Himalayas, and a related fossil in the genus ''Caprolagus'' has been found as far away as Indonesia. Today, the species' habitat is much smaller and is highly fragmented. The region it occupies is estimated to be less than , extending over an area of . Populations experienced a continuing decline due to loss of suitable habitat via increasing agriculture, flood con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pygmy Hog
The pygmy hog (''Porcula salvania'') is a very small and endangered species of pig and the only species in the genus ''Porcula''. Endemic to India, the pygmy hog is a suid native of the alluvial grasslands in the foothills of the Himalayas, at elevations of up to . Populations of pygmy hogs were once widespread in the tall, dense, wet grasslands in a narrow belt of the southern Himalayan foothills from north-western Uttar Pradesh to Assam, through southern Nepal and North Bengal, and possibly extending into contiguous habitats in southern Bhutan. Due to human encroachment and destruction of the pygmy hogs’ natural habitat, the species was thought to have gone extinct in the early 1960s. However, in 1971, a small pygmy hog population was rediscovered as they were fleeing a fire near the Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam. Today, the only known population of pygmy hogs resides in Manas National Park in Assam, India. The population is threatened by livestock grazing, fires and po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Langur
Gee's golden langur (''Trachypithecus geei''), also known as simply the golden langur, is an Old World monkey found in a small region of Western Assam, India and the neighboring foothills of the Black Mountains of Bhutan. Long considered sacred by many Himalayan people, the golden langur was first brought to the attention of the Western world by the naturalist Edward Pritchard Gee in the 1950s. Adult males have a cream to golden coat with darker flanks while the females and juveniles are lighter. The golden langur has a black face and a long tail up to in length. It lives in high trees and has a herbivorous diet of fruits, leaves, seeds, buds, and flowers. The average group size is eight individuals, with a ratio of several females to each adult male. It is one of the most endangered primate species of India and Bhutan. In 2008–09, there were 6,000 golden langurs in India, which has grown to 7,396 by 2020–21. Discovery and etymology The earliest record of the golden l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaur
The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 mature individuals in 2016, with the majority of those existing in India. It is the largest species among the wild cattle and the Bovidae. The domesticated ''gayal'' or ''mithun'' originated partly from the wild gaur and is most common in the border regions of Northeast India (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland) and Bangladesh with Myanmar and Yunnan, China.Simoons, F. J. (1984). ''Gayal or mithan''. In: Mason, I. L. (ed.) ''Evolution of Domesticated Animals''. Longman, London. Pages 34–38. Etymology The Sanskrit word means 'white, yellowish, reddish'. The Sanskrit word means a kind of water buffalo. The Hindi word means 'fair-skinned, fair, white'. Taxonomy ''Bison gaurus'' was the scientific name proposed by Charles Hamilton Smith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
