LION COUNT IN GUJARAT

FOREST OFFICIALS TO RELY ON BODY MARKS TO IDENTIFY CATS

Volunteers of the census, beginning April 24, will be given a sketch of lion to note down different characteristics of the animal, including whisker patterns

DILIP PATEL

More than 1,000 volunteers and forest officials will carry out the lion census in Gir from April 24 to 28. Apart from pairs of binoculars and digital cameras, participants of the census will be given a sketch of lion to note down various characteristics, including injury marks, of the wild cat.
Interestingly, whiskers and pattern of whisker spots on a lion’s upper lip will be the key identification marks. This is because lions, unlike tigers, do not have noticeable body patterns, making it difficult for animal-spotters to distinguish them.
Whiskers and pattern of their holes differ from lion to lion. Together, they act as a fingerprint of sorts of lions. Apart from them, marks on ears, face and body will be other parameters for identification.
“We will start the lion count in the last week of April when there’s a full moon,” the chief conservator of forest, Ravi Asari, told Mirror.
“We have taught volunteers of this exercise how to note down different characteristics of a lion on a sketch given to them. Whisker spots are a key identification mark of the wild cat. Experts can easily distinguish one lion from other another by looking at them.”
A former wildlife warden, G A Patel, who was part of two lion counts, said that making a note of whisker spot patterns on a lion’s upper lip was an apt way to identify the animal.
“A database of such characteristics can help forest officials identify lions even when they move out of their territory,” he said. Uday Vora, who is the deputy conservator of forest, said that volunteers who would conduct the census had been trained well. He recently returned from Gir after training them.