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The Thinking Tiger

@krishbohra.bsky.social

63 followers 31 following 250 posts

Wildlife enthusiast🐅 History nerd🔍 Bibliophile 📚 I like chasing animals in history 🐾 ✍️ You may or may not know me from Twitter.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · Mar 3

Happy World Wildlife Day!!
Once upon a time, lions were found in half of North India. Now they live in Gir alone. Knowing their history in 19th century helps us understand this decline. You can read my article here! 🦁🦁🦁
medium.com/@krish_bohra...

Dwindling Prides and Fading Roars: Indian Lion in the 19th Century

A brief look into the history of lions in 19th century India

medium.com

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 20h

Source:

1) Journal of Bombay Natural History Society vol. 83 (1986)
2) Journal of Bombay Natural History Society vol. 85 (1988)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 20h

Day 78/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Dholes have been extinct in Rajasthan since the early 2000s. But in 1986, Divyabhnusinh saw and photographed three of them at Sariska in the northern Aravallis. Two years later, he was informed they were still there but had separated.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 1d

Source: Rajasthan District Gazetteer: Barmer (1962)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 1d

PS: This record is an example of tigers in western Rajasthan from the state's gazetteer published in the early 1960s, recording them in the Siwana Hills of Barmer district.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 1d

Day 77/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Today, Ranthambore is the westernmost tiger pop. Historically, Bengal tigers lived in the Indus Valley further west too but went extinct in the early 20th c. So for a long time, westernmost Bengal tiger populations were in the middle of the Thar desert.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 2d

Source: The Cheetal vol. 16 (1974)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 2d

Day 76/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

In 1970, T. Venkateswarlu saw a gharial caught by a fisherman in Patna who told him he had caught three more two years ago at the same spot on Ganga. They used to migrate from Gandak river, all the way to Allahabad through Ganga back then.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 3d

Source: www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collectio...

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 3d

Day 75/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Clara was a famous rhinoceros captured from Assam, taken to Holland, and exhibited across Europe in 1741-58. In India, Director of the Dutch factoy, kept her as a pet in Hooghly for 3 yrs.

This 1747 illustration shows a ship taking her from Hooghly.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 4d

Source: Journal of Bombay Natural History Society vol. 40 (1938)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 4d

Day 74/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

C. Howson of the Mayo College, Ajmer in 1938 wrote about families of otters killing crocodiles in the Pushkar Lake. He goes on to say that when he shared this with students, one of them shared a similar incident from Bundi.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 5d

Source: Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825 vol. 1 by Reginald Heber (1828)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 5d

Context: Barrackpore Menagerie was a large collection of animals built by Richard Wellesley and later maintained by the Company. It is considered a precursor to the Alipore Zoo of Kolkata, India's first Public Zoo, opened in 1876, after which Barrackpore didn't have any animals.

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 5d

Day 73/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Reginald Heber, second Bishop of Calcutta, came to what is now a locality of Kolkata, Chitpur, on 1 March, 1824. Here, he saw a jackal. He also mentions Baboo Budinâth Roy, who lived there had a “menagerie . . . only inferior to that of Barrackpoor.”

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 6d

Source: Journal of Bombay Natural History Society vol. 30 (1925)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 6d

Day 72/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

This note on an alleged blackbuck-chinkara shot in Bikaner was published in 1925. Though it is hard to say for certain what the animal was with such scarce details, the text and the accompanying photograph make it a rather curious record.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 7d

Source: Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, vol. 4 (1889)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 7d

Day 71/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Similipal's pseudomelanistic tigers are famous for their larger than usual black stripes today. But what's not generally known is this old record of a completely black tiger shot in Chittagong in 1846. It is the only known record of its kind.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 8d

This postcard has been on my mind ever since I saw it for the first time exactly because of how the tiger looks. It is also unique because it has a live animal as opposed to the norm of hunting scenes and trophies. Would love to research it more deeply someday.

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 8d

We're one month away from finishing this . . .

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 8d

Day 70/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

This postcard was made by the Gobindram & Oodeyram studio in 1908. Based in Jaipur, they specialized in photos related to the city. The tiger is in a captive setting, and given the studio, it is highly likely it was originally from the jungles of Jaipur.

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 8d

Source: www.paperjewels.org/postcard/tig...

Tiger, Jaipur

Most postcards of tigers during this period were of ones killed during hunting expeditions. with this being a refreshing exception even as the animal is likely confined in a small space.

www.paperjewels.org

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 8d

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 9d

Source: Journal of Bombay Natural History Society vol. 42 (1942)

The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 9d

Day 69/100 of Cool Indian Wildlife History

Van Ingen and Van Ingen was a famous taxidermy firm in British India that served a large number of hunters and naturalists across the country. In 1941, they published two photos of unusual morphs in two tigers and a leopard with a note on their origins.

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The Thinking Tiger @krishbohra.bsky.social · 10d

Source: Oriental Field Sports; Being a Complete, Detailed and Accurate Description of the Wild sports of the East by Thomas Williamson (1807)