Dear all

Thanks you for giving your time for reading my blogs and asking question.

Cheers

Parag

 Hi Some pictures from release monitoring. Parag

Discover a nest of hog

Installing Camera trap

Camera trap in front of nest

Picture of hog taken by a camera trap

Parag in field camp looking for parasites  in palates of released hogs

Hi All

Following picture tells release of hogs.

Hogs put in transport box to take to release site

Hogs carried to release enclosure

Hogs in transport box in the release hogs, monitoring platform in far

Hog released

Parag

Hi

Again picture before releasing hogs in the wild

Parag

Team Looking for newer site for release in the other side of foot hill rriver

Me and Goutam (right ) discussing release site

Team resting between works in field

Dear all

Following are the few pictures of habitat problems . Hope these will help you to understand the habitat problem.

Thnaks

Parag

Grassland Burning

Cattle Grazing & Degradation of Habitat

Hello Everyone

Today a group of students from a local school visited us. We usually get visitors in our pre-release centre where we have a display unit. Beside native people and local students’, tourists from different parts of the world also come to see this critically endangered pygmy hog. Our pre-release center is close to a Nameri National Park and eco tourist resort. Nameri is famous for bird watching specially the white winged wood duck. Have you seen this bird at Jersey Zoo? if not look for it in your next visit to Durrell, it is there.

I usually tell the visitors how unique pygmy hog is and why conservation of their habitat is so important. We also sometimes go the villages close to Manas National Park to make villagers aware about the species and the importance of the habitat. I want native people to feel proud of this endemic species so that they get inspiration to contribute a little way towards the conservation of not only pygmy hog but also other species and their habitat. I want them to take something back to their home … may be a pamphlet …written in native language … with images … hoping that it may remind them of our conservation message. So I am looking for some funds to develop educational materials for this important purpose.

We do not allow any visitors to visit pre-release enclosures. Anyway it is difficult to see pygmy hogs in this simulated habitat. So you might wonder how difficult it would be to monitor them after the release in their wild habitat. They do not have proper neck for fitting radio collars as in other animal which you may have seen in “Animal Planet” or “National Geographic” channels. Our previous attempts of radio telemetry failed. So we are working on it, developing a device which can be fitted on the hogs which will carry tiny radio transmitter. From the signal received we can monitor their movement and how they are utilising their habitat. This will tell us more about the biology of this secretive species.

But so far we are monitoring released pygmy hogs with some difficulties. We walk in grassland, looking for field signs (foot prints, foraging marks, pallets). Sometimes we able to locate their nest and install camera traps to take their picture. But this process of walking in the tall grassland may be dangerous also if you are not properly equipped. Let me tell you one incidence. In the year 2011, just after release of pygmy hogs in Orang National Park we were looking for field signs. A domestic elephant ridden by a mahout (Hindu word for a man who looks after and rides elephants) and a forest guard carrying an gun accompanied the field team. They were with us to protect us from any tiger and rhino danger. While walking on the grassland the mahout on top of elephant failed to spot a Rhino lying in a water hole close to the search team.  Suddenly the Rhino appeared in front of us and probably he was shocked to see a group of people and an elephant close to him. He charged us. But the elephant was brave enough to stand between us and the guard fired his gun in the air to scare him. The rhino ran away and we ran to the opposite direction to a safe location. We hope that we may avoid this kind of dangerous situation if we able to develop new device to monitor released hogs.

Now I would like to stop my story here. Daniel is going to meet you soon and tell you more about us. But before stopping let me share my feelings. When I heard about your effort to help me or any one of my co-conservationist working in different parts of the world to save a needy species, I see a hope. You are special, conservation is already in your mind … you already recognised the need of the world, and because of that you want to contribute even in small way towards conservation. Whom you send your assistance does not matter ... but thank you ... for your interest and action.

I should also thank your parents and teachers of Granville School who actually generate interest on you and guiding you to take action.

And I am sure some of you will be conservationists in the future. Being a conservationist you will enjoy your life and also contributing towards the survival of this world. And those who will choose other paths I would like to request you to keep the conservation in mind while taking any action.

All the best

Parag

Hi

Girls and Boys

Do you remember that on my first blog I mentioned pregnant females? So, we have given them individual paddocks and food pan from today. They will be having babies in their individual enclosures. Females seek isolation from their group towards the last trimester of their pregnancy. Pygmy hog breeds once in a year and average litter size is 4 to 5 hoglets. They will give babies from mid May to later part of June.  Babies will be with mother till they are five months old. Sometime in December we will separate the juveniles from their mother and form group of four to six individuals. Then we will take them to our Pr-release
enclosures to make them fit for release in the wild. We will house them in the pre-release enclosure without direct human contact with minimum food supply for another five to six months.

We have created a semi wild environment by simulating their habitat in pre-release enclosures. These enclosures are made with a bamboo fence. But these need to be replace every year. Nowadays bamboo is expensive , labour costs are high and it is difficult to get good bamboo near our per-release centre. So we have decided to replace this with chain link fence to make it more permanent and for that we are also looking for funding.

 

We usually release hogs into the wild from mid to late May. In that time grasses are tall enough for pygmy hogs to hide in and they cut the grasses themselves for building their own nest. Because of pre-monsoon the resources (insects, roots and tubers) in the grassland will also be plentiful and they will easily find their needs. So they will be able to adjust in the wild habitat without much difficulty before the monsoon comes in mid July.

So following this soft release process of reintroduction we have so far released 85 hogs in two different parks.

I have to stop here now. A small group of students from a local school visiting us this afternoon and I need to prepare for them.   

Write to you soon. Wish you a happy weekend.

Parag

Hi

Students

I am back again. Do you know what I brought from the market yesterday? Sugarcane, papaya, coconut, sweet potato and egg. Pygmy hog are omnivorous animals. In wild they eat lots of roots and tubers and insects and some wild fruits. So we provide them here varieties of tubers, fruits and eggs. As we are in a tropical country our hot and humid environment also helps in multiplication of insects in the paddocks. And it makes them busy in digging all the day looking for insects (Termites are their most favourite) in the paddocks.

Do you know what I ordered for supplies this morning … thatch.  Why thatch – because the hogs need it to build their home … thier nest! Yes this is a mammal who builds their own nest and lives in a nest. Other wild hogs build nests only while they give babies. There are very few mammals in the world who also build their own home. The Pygmy hog makes a shallow depression on ground and arrange grasses layers over layers to build their nest. Nest are so nicely built that even in heavy rain water does not percolate through it. It remains cooler in hot summer days and much warmer in winter. They are social animals and live on a small group of 4 to 6 individuals. All members of the group take part in building nest and live together in their nest. In captivity we provide them thatch to build their nest. Some time they pull tall grasses we planted in paddocks to build nest also. So they are the nest builder hogs that live in the Terai grassland.

Terai grassland was a very long narrow strip of grassland found in southern foot hills of Himalaya. Beside the pygmy hog this also home for many endangered species. But more important is that it also helps people live close to it. Their livelihood and protection of their land also depends on the continued existence of grassland. But now, changes are happening in grassland, they are fragmented and only few pockets of grassland are left. And wild pygmy hogs are found only in one of them … that is Manas National Park. Only in very small numbers … maybe just a few hundred… 200 to 300. I am sure Daniel will tell you more about it.

And I am certain that after listening to him you will relaise that conserving the pygmy hog and their home and what Durrell is doing in collaboration with others is not only saving pygmy hog but also helping people to live around it.

Now I have to stop my story of pygmy hog here today. It is half past five in the evening here at home. I have to go to home now; my wife and daughters are waiting for me to go to a festive place to enjoy Ronglai bihu. 

Cheers

Parag

Hi friends

Good morning to you all. Now it is 10 in the morning at Assam. (I know you are still in the bed, it is half past five at your home).  I have just finished my morning course of work with the hogs. Pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) the rare of the rarest mammal in the world, once declared extinct and rediscovered in 1971 by a Jersey man – a tea planter in Assam. Since then Durrell has been involved in the conservation of this species. My Friend Daniel Craven will visit you and tell you more about this.

I am Parag Jyoti Deka

, Project Manager of the pygmy hog conservation programme. Though I am a vet I have been trained at Durrell in way back 1999 to manage and breed endangered species in captivity.

This week I am helping my keeper with animal husbandry. This week is a holiday for Assam as the national festival of Assam (Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu) is happening now. Most of the keepers are visiting their family at their native villages. So I am helping the only keeper working right now in our centre. Today my younger daughter is with me. She is here to assist me.

We have just finished feeding hogs in one enclosure. She helped me in arranging feeding plates. We offer the hogs this morning a piece of watermelon, a piece of bannan and a piece of paraboiled arum. We have now eight pregnant hogs in this centre and another four pregnant hogs at another centre. So we have added extra vitamin and minerals to the feeds of the pregnant sow. At eleven they will get maize which we will be spreading in their paddocks.

This is a pre monsoon season in Assam and temperature is rising. The temperature now is 33°C. Our hogs love wallowing. They will go for a dip in the wallowing pool and then rub their body coat and become fresh. So just after giving food we fill the wallowing pools with water.  

Now I have to go the local market to buy some more food for the hogs. Here we have a market day (Thursday and Sunday). So i'll write soon again. I know you want to know more about our hogs and conservation efforts. So write to me…. I will try to satisfy your young minds.

Bye Bye

Parag