Just one week after the false Pallas Fish Eagle sighting, Greater Kashmir has scored another self-goal with a wildlife faux pas.

Todays edition of the newspaper claims the first ever sighting of the Barn Owl in Srinagar. The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is classified as a non common resident bird in Kashmir.

Here is a photo of the bird in my garden in 2004:



From the Greater Kashmir report:
Experts while confirming rarity of the bird said it was for the first time that such a bird was spotted in Srinagar.
'This seems to be a rare incident in our City', Director Animal Husbandry, Dr Farooq Ahmed Kaloo told Greater Kashmir. He said the bird could have reached the City through some load carrier coming in from outside state. 'Truckers often carry animals like monkeys on the rooftop. May be they have brought it to Kashmir and set it free here,' Dr Kaloo added.

My elder son, Jamshed, has a comment to make. 'Monkeys cannot fly Sir, birds can.'

The report goes on to state that 'As per online reports, the Barn Owl is North America's only member of the family Tytonidae (all other owls are from the Strigidae family) sometimes called the monkey-faced owl family.' This part of the report is accurate and thankfully the officer did not suggest that the Barn Owl landed in Kashmir via an international flight from the USA !

This is not the first time that erroneous official statements regarding owls have been issued:
On a wild 'Owl' chase

News Link:
Rare Owl Spotted in City

Preposterous claims of wildlife sightings are an official tradition in Kashmir :
Out For a Duck

Would you believe that the papers recently reported that a 'snow" leopard attacked people just because it happened in winter.

Snow leopard in Banihal

This picture is from a local newspaper in Kashmir published earlier this week.


Image Courtesy:Greater Kashmir

Because the bird is flying over a lake it has been captioned as a Pallas Fish Eagle. It actually is a Black Kite (Milvus Migrans) which is by far the most common raptor in Kashmir.

To give the news editor some credit though, he/she actually bothered to look up a bird that actually exists in Kashmir.
That in itself is commendable, because at times even the local wildlife authorities make preposterous claims about sightings of wildlife.

A Black Stork ( Ciconia nigra ) has been sighted by Wildlife Warden Shopian-Pulwama, Intesar Suhail on December, 26 near the threatened Panzpora Jheel wetland.


Image Courtesy:Greater Kashmir

According to Suhail, 'This is the first ever authentic record of this bird species being spotted in Kashmir, although it is known to visit some wetlands of Ladakh. But sighting of this rare bird in the Valley is significant'.

If it indeed represents the first record of the species in Kashmir, then congratulations are in order.

News Link:
Rare migratory bird spotted in Pulwama

Image Courtesy:Wikipedia

Its that time of the year again. If you have been following this blog, the third instalment of my wild leopard tales is out. After Shivpora and Rajbagh, leopards keep inching their way closer and closer to my front door.

This year a wild leopard has been stalking my hospital. Pixie or Pepsi, a stray dog that has adopted the hospital as it's home, has bravely avoided the leopard for the past week. Meanwhile the leopard killed a dog in an adjacent house in an incident publicised in the local press. Probably through sheer ignorance, the owners left the body of the dog in their yard, not realising that an apex predator like the leopard is not easily thwarted. Sure enough it returned for its kill in the night.

Yesterday it tried to push open my night-watchmans door, after injuring Pixie who is limping around with a broken foreleg in the dark. A team from the Wildlife Department, assisted by cops from the nearby Ram Munshi Bagh Police Station tried to track the leopard down last night. As expected there was no trace of the elusive predator in the dark. We tried to secure Pixie behind a metal grille but it was too scared to co-operate. I hope it is still alive but I am sure that the leopard will return in the night.

Shahid, my night-watchman, has been trapped in his hut for the second time this year. Earlier it was a huge black bear that wanted to feast on the ripe mulberry tree just outside, this time around it is a hungry leopard. When the leopard first appeared in the premises a few days ago, I and my elder son walked up the slope from the gate to his hut in the dark. It was quite an experience. In the flashlight beam, every small winter bush covered with chinar leaves seemed like a crouched leopard ready to pounce. When you realise that there has been no electrical supply to the hospital for the past week due to a damaged transformer, the bravery of this young lad shines through. I, for one, never wish to lock eyes with a wild leopard again.



The most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the most cunning. It is the strongest climber of the large cats and capable of killing prey larger than itself. Its success as a ruthless hunter owes is due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, and its non-specialised diet -it will eat any animal it can hunt down and catch.

Although examples of such animals are comparatively rare, when they do occur they depict the panther [leopard] as an engine of destruction quite equal to his far larger cousin, the tiger. Because of his smaller size he can conceal himself in places impossible to a tiger, his need for water is far less, and in veritable demoniac cunning and daring, coupled with the uncanny sense of self preservation and stealthy disappearance when danger threatens, he has no equal...

- Kenneth Anderson - Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue, Chapter II The Spotted Devil of Gummalapur



Update: Leopard tranquilized and captured in a private house near Islamia School Dalgate.

Leopard who killed Don finally caught

We need more people like him:
Kashmir: green warrior protects Deodar forests