Order: Artiodactyla

Family: Bovidae

 

Size: up to 170-210 cm in length (head to body).

Weight: - up to 109-288 kg.

 

Key Features: The nilgai has thin legs and a robust body that slopes down from the shoulder. They show marked sexual dimorphism, with only the males having horns. Adult males have a grey to bluish-grey coat, with white spots on the cheeks and white colouring on the edges of the lips. They also have a white throat bib and a narrow white stripe along the underside of the body that widens at the rear. The tips of the long, tufted tail and of the ears are black. They also possess a tubular-shaped "pennant" of long, coarse hair on the midsection of the throat. emales and young are tawny brown in colour, although otherwise with similar markings to the male; they have no horns and only a very small "pennant". 

 

Voice: they are generally quiet animals, but have been reported to make short guttural grunts when alarmed, and females to make clicking noises when nursing young.

 

Breeding: Breeding occurs in late autumn to early winter. Gestation lasts 243 to 247 days, resulting in the birth of twins in about 50% of cases, although births of one or three do occur. Females become solitary towards the end of their pregnancy, and hide their young from other nilgai for the first month of their lives. Females reach sexual maturity at around two years of age, and males by their third year, although the most reproductively active bulls are typically at least four or five years old.

 

Diet: feed on grasses, leaves, buds, and fruit.

 

Habitat: Nilgai are habitat generalists, living in grasslands and woodlands.

 

Habits: Nilgai are diurnal, and tend to form single-sex herds outside of the breeding season. Herds are not of fixed composition, with individuals joining and rejoining through the year. Female herds typically contain three to six adults, together with their calves, whereas bulls form herds of two to 18 individuals. In winter, male nilgai form herds of 30 to 100 animals in northern India.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

Distribution in the GoK: reported along the coast of Gulf of Kachchh.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

D.M. Leslie (2008). "Boselaphus tragocamelus (Artiodactyla: Bovidae)". Mammalian Species: Number 813: pp. 1–16.

 

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/2893/0

 

Photo Courtesy

Andrew C., Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Blue Bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus)