(IN): Eggs hatch! Out come two little western tragopans

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http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080055159 & ch=7/1/2008%\

2010:24:00%20AM

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Eggs hatch! Out come two little western tragopans*

 

Indo-Asian News Service

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 (Shimla)

For the second successive year, five pairs of the highly endangered western

tragopan laid eggs in captivity at a pheasantry in Himachal Pradesh and - to

the delight of bird lovers - two of these have hatched.

 

The eggs hatched last week at the Central Zoo Authority-funded pheasantry at

Sarahan, 160 km from Shimla. Biologists used broody hens because the natural

parents showed no interest in brooding, officials said.

 

The brilliantly coloured bird is listed in the Red Data Book of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a compendium of

species facing extinction. And that's why the chicks are such good news.

 

The breeding project, started in 2004 under the guidance of John Corder of

the World Pheasants Association, got a boost when the birds laid eggs for

the first time in 2005. Then three of the four chicks died. There was no

breeding in 2006 as none of the eggs laid in the clutches hatched.

 

Last year nine chicks were bred. Two of them have been sent to the Himalayan

Nature Park in Kufri, 25 km from Shimla, where birds, particularly those

from the western Himalayas, have been housed.

 

Conservator (wildlife) Lalit Mohan, who championed the cause of 'parent

rearing' of endangered species in captivity, said various facilities would

be created over an area of nine hectares in the pheasantry.

 

Besides seven breeding pans, a veterinary hospital, quarantine room and

incubators would be built.

 

The natural feed of the bird like barley and spinach will be grown in the

pheasantry. The chicks will be parent-reared for about six months before

being released in the wild.

 

The officials will keep track of them after their reintroduction to study

their habits and migration pattern.

 

The western tragopan is the state bird of Himachal Pradesh and belongs to

the family Phasianidae, which also includes the peafowl and the red jungle

fowl.

 

Being a shy bird, it is rarely sighted and is found at an altitude of 2,000

to 3,600 metres in the temperate forests of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal

Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

 

Mohan attributes the western tragopan's downfall to habitat degradation,

hunting and extensive grazing of the forest by livestock.

 

 

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