Pups, hyenas join ‘urban’ wolves, raise habitat hope in West Bengal's Durgapur grasslands

KOLKATA: One of the four packs of ‘urban’ wolves has augmented their numbers, within months after cameras documented them near Durgapur town.
Cameras have captured images of a pup, approximately six weeks old, in one of the packs, currently located at Madhaiganj forest, merely 20 km from the industrial town.

This, foresters and experts say, suggests that the population is breeding successfully despite human-induced pressure in an urban landscape.
This also adds a novel chapter in the conservation of ‘urban’ wolves as documentation of such young pups in the wild is exceptionally rare, said Arkajyoti Mukherjee of Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society (WINGS), a local NGO executing the project.
While researchers disclosed the presence of three pups in the pack, they confirmed cameras have thus far captured one.

“With substantial anthropogenic pressure and resource limitations they are breeding successfully, demonstrating their adaptability in human-dominated landscapes,” said Manish Kr Chattopadhyay of WINGS.
Last year, 10 camera traps, placed in forests of Madhaiganj, Bijra, Garh Jangal and Kantaberia, had revealed presence of approximately 15-24 wolves in 3-4 packs within a radius of 5km-20km of the industrial town. “The presence of pups was found in Madhaiganj after a trap camera photographed one of them. The alpha female of the pack, known as ‘langda’ as a portion of her hind paw is missing, is the mother. While in one photograph, the pup appears solitary, presumably following its pack, in another it has been observed with its mother,” said Arnish Bose, member of WINGS.
The pack and wolf numbers have been identified based on their morphological characteristics, said Sankha Mishra of WINGS. “ Estimating that the survival rate of the pups will be 50% in the wild, these findings are encouraging,” added Mukherjee.
Chief conservator of forest Bidyut Sarkar said cameras have been documenting wolves here for past three years. “This indicates their habitat remains intact. Also, protection measures are yielding results.” The study is part of the Indian grey wolf conservation project in West Burdwan.
The area has also become home for another threatened species, striped hyena, whose images, too, were captured by cameras. “This study is being conducted with funding from Wildlife Trust of India to assess the relative abundance of striped hyenas in West Burdwan. Relative abundance measures how scarce or prevalent a species is compared to other species in a specific location,” Mukherjee said.