<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/637230549c7e80680e0c255fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>A wild ox Gaur spotted in Chitwan. Photo: BABU RAM LAMICHHANE</figcaption></figure>On the morning of 4 May, I got a call from the chief warden of Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in eastern Nepal. He wanted me to verify a picture of an animal: if it was a wild ox (गौरिगाई) or a wild water buffalo (अर्ना).The chief warden was tasked by the District Forest Officer of Udaypur with rescuing the animal that had ventured into the Khaijanpur Community Forest in Trijuga Municipality and the nearby village, straying into cowsheds and attacking two people in the process.The team led by a forest ranger reached the site, but was unable to identify the animal in question. When I was sent a photograph they took, I immediately recognised it as a specimen of the wild ox, gaur. The ranger's team finally pushed the animal out of the village to the forest it originally came from.This was a significant sighting because it confirmed the existence of the gaur in Eastern Nepal. We had been looking for evidence of this, but had failed to do so until now.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/637230579c7e80680e0c2560jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1352" height="881"><figcaption>Gaur population trend in Chitwan and Parsa National Parks.</figcaption></figure>The sighting shows that they must be quite a few of the wild ox roaming around the forests mostly undetected in biodiversity surveys of 2018 and later. This also means how little we know about this, and perhaps even other species in Nepal.Gaur (Latin name: Bos gaurus) is the largest bovine in the world and the third-largest mammal found in Nepal and Asia, after the Asian elephant and the greater one-horned rhinoceros. An adult gaur stands at 1.7-2.2m at its shoulder with a male weighs between 1,000-1,500kg, and a female between 700-1,000kg.Historically, the gaur roamed throughout South and Southeast Asia. But with widespread habitat loss and fragmentation, over 80% of their range collapsed over time. Surviving populations are confined in isolated forest patches mostly inside protected areas in ten countries of South and Southeast Asia.The gaur is in the ‘Vulnerable’ category on the IUCN Red List, and protected by law in Nepal. Globally, the population of this imposing animal is estimated at between 13,000 to 30,000.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/6372305b9c7e80680e0c2561jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1329" height="412"><figcaption>Gaur in Trijuga, came into settlement and stayed at the cowshed of locals. Photos: KUMAR RAJ SHRESTHA</figcaption></figure>Gaurs play an important ecological role as large grazers, especially in the Chure Range, Inner Tarai and Tarai and are concentrated in Chitwan and Parsa National Parks.  They generally live in small herds of 5-12 animals, but sometimes gather in large groups of over 100 individuals.Given their large body mass and the fact that they travel in herds means they help maintain openings within the forest and create grazing lawns which are used by other smaller herbivores like the spotted deer.Gaurs are also a part of the diet of tigers which prefer the large body size of prey like the gaur, arna, nilgai, sambar and swamp deer, even though they are primarily consuming smaller herbivores like the chital and hog deer.A small population is also found in the Trijuga forest in Udaypur and Saptari districts in Eastern Nepal, which was probably where the Trijuga specimen orginated. One gaur bull was brought in 1993 to Jawalakhel zoo from Jhapa District.A survey to estimate the gaur population in Chitwan was carried out in 2021 and in Parsa this year, and reported 388 and 164 mammals respectively. Population surveys have been carried out on a regular basis in Chitwan which shows a gradual increase of the population from 188 in 1997 to 388 in 2021. Similarly, in Parsa, the population has increased from 105 to164 in the past five years.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111413118/6372305d9c7e80680e0c2562jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3509" height="2481"><figcaption>Distribution of Gaur in Nepal based on the surveys in Chitwan and Parsa National Park and a record from Trijuga forest in Eastern Nepal.</figcaption></figure>However, their presence outside of Chitwan and Parsa National Park is now negligible. Part of the reason is the deterioration and encroachment of its natural habitat, especially outside protected areas. Fragmentation of the Chure and Tarai is further depleting their range.They are also hunted for bushmeat, mistreated and succumb to diseases. Lack of information about their status, ecology and threats also add to the conservation challenge. Nepal's conservation priority now needs to shift from a focus on charismatic mammals like tigers and rhinos to other large but neglected mammals like gaur which are also endangered and important for the ecosystem.The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has formulated a Gaur Conservation Action Plan for Nepal (2020-2024) to maintain the population and protect their habitat. The strategy prioritises hunting prevention, reducing disease threats, research and monitoring, protection and management of habitat as well as strengthening cooperation for gaur conservation.Babu Ram Lamichhane is with the Natural Trust for Nature Conservation – Biodiversity Conservation Centre in Sauraha, Chitwan. Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/activists-against-animal-cruelty-at-nepal-temple/">Activists decry animal slaughter at Nepal temple</a>, Sewa Bhattarai

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Protecting Nepal’s endangered wild cattle

<figure><img width="640" height="399" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161144/636d1d229c7e80680e0af397jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The latest edition of Nepal’s <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-many-tigers-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tiger census</a> began on Sunday in which 300 enumerators will span out across Parsa, Bardia, Banke, Chitwan and Shuklaphanta National Parks to record <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/tigers-move-up-the-himalaya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the big cat population</a> in the country.
The Tiger census begins just after Nepal finished counting its human population. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) will release the figure on World Tiger Day on 29 July. In 2018, the total number of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-tigers-now-number-235/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wild tigers in the country was 235</a>.
For the census, Chitwan-Parsa region has been considered as one area, which is divided into three blocks. Banke-Bardia as the second area has been divided into four blocks. Shuklaphanta and Laljandi have been categorised as the third.
A grid of two kilometres in length and one in width will be constructed in the divided block. The three blocks of Chitwan Parsa have been divided into 1,924 grids. These grids are equipped with automatic cameras to capture tiger activity.
“We’ve made such arrangements that the tigers for certain will cross the path with our camera traps,” says Director General of DNPWC Ram Chandra Kandel. “We will then calculate the figure by analysing all the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-highest-ever-tiger-sighting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tigers captured by the camera</a>.”
Some 3,000 camera trap pictures will be taken throughout the survey, which will then be analysed by trained technicians. While there is a possibility of the same tiger being photographed repeatedly, two big cats can be told apart by the length of their fur, which is different for each individual. Before the year 2000, tigers used to be counted as per their steps.
Nepal is an international model for tiger conservation and the first country to double the population of its big cats following the Tiger Conference in Petersburg, Russia in 2009. It is expected to record the highest numbers of tigers in the country yet.
The Nepal government first started the census in 1995, back when there were only 98 of them. In 2018, the country recorded 235 tigers, up from 121 in 2009. Chitwan National Park has the most number of mammals at 93, closely followed by 87 in Bardia. There are 21 more in Banke, 18 in Parsa and 16 in Shuklaphanta, according to the last survey.
Of late, there have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/tiger-selfie-is-highest-ever-sighting-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more frequent sightings of big cats</a> also at higher elevations. In April 2020, a Royal Bengal Tiger was sighted at 2,500m in Dadeldhura. This was followed up by another sighting, this time at 3,165m, in the forest of Ilam.
But conservation successes have also brought about challenges. Protected areas are now overcrowded with predators compared to their prey density. This is driving tigers and other mammals outside forests in search of food, in turn leading to an increase in human-animal conflicts. 
Increased human-animal conflict threatens social harmony and endangers hard achieved past gains in conservation. 
But wildlife-friendly infrastructure such as overpass and underpass have shown to significantly reduce human-animal conflicts in Nepal, so has better management of protected areas including transplantation of animals taking into consideration predator-prey ratio and plant species of the location. 
Read also:
<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16820#.Ya16_cFBzOS">Back to jungle</a>, Nirmal Ghosh
<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/sun-striped-shadows/">Sun striped shadows</a>, Lisa Choegyal

Nepal counting its tigers

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Protecting Nepal’s endangered wild cattle

Nepal counting its tigers