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Tetracerus quadricornis Four-horned antelope, Chousingha
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Bovidae Subfamily: Bovinae Genus: Tetracerus Species: Quadricornis
Classification Binomial name
Tetracerus quadricornis
Blainville, 1816
Tetra (Greek) four;Keras (Greek) the horn of an animal. Quadri- (Latin) prefix meaning four; Cornu (Latin) the horn of an animal: Tetracerus quadricornis means a four-horned four-horn an appropriate name for this unique ungulate. These animals are grouped in separate subfamily the Boselaphinae .
Conservation Status
Four Horned Antelope
1. Poaching2. Lack of wild life management3. Lack of wild life awareness4. Excessive hunting
Why this animal is “Threatened” ????
The four-horned antelope is considered vulnerable by the IUCN (1996). The four-horned antelope is considered vulnerable by the IUCN (1996).
The four-horned antelope is considered vulnerable by the IUCN (1996).
Family group: Usually solitary or in pairs.
Diet: Leaves, grasses, shoots, fruit, dependent on water.
Main Predators: Tiger, leopard, wolf, small cats.
Habitats
Undulating or hill country shelters in tall grass. Open jungle , a terrain more unusual to deer than to antelope. The four-horned antelope is rarely found away from water place, and must drink regularly in order to survive.
Its primary distribution is in India extending South of the Gangetic plains down till the state of Tamilnadu. Orissa constitutes the Eastern boundary of its distribution, whereas the fragmented population at Gir is its westernmost distribution. A small population is also found in the drier forests of Nepal.
In Indian subcontinent
Range Map (Redrawn from Walther, 1990) Woodlands of the India.
65 cm height.
Posterior horns 8-10 cm.
Anterior 1-2.5 cm .
Weight: 15-25 kg / 33-55 lb
Body Length: 90-110 cm / 3-3.6 ft.
Shoulder Height:55-65 cm / 1.8-2.1 ft.
Dimensions
Distinctive Characters
The more obvious points of distinction is the structure of the horns which are not ringed as the true antelopes .They are keeled in front . The females are hornless .
The short, coarse coat yellow-brown to dark reddish-brown.Undersides and inside surfaces of the legs whitish. The nose is generally darker. The legs are slender, and the rump is higher than the rest of the body.
Body Characters
The gait of this antelope when walking or running is jerky.
The smooth, conical horns, found only in the male of this species, are nearly straight and point upwards. The main pair, found just in front of the ears grows 5-12 cm / 2- 4.8 inches long. Usually there is a second, shorter pair of horns on the foremost part of the forehead, reaching a length of only 2- 4 cm / 0.8-1.6 inches. These secondary horns may fall off in older animals, or may merely be represented by nodules of black, hairless skin.
Horns -The special feature
Easily tamed when young, the chousingha is very delicate in captivity. Population densities are usually less then 0.5 animals per square kilometer. The cage dimensions should be 2.5 x 1.5 x 2.00 .
Breeding in captivity
Four horned antelope in one of the zoos inKarnataka.
Ontogeny and Reproduction
Gestation Period : 7.5-8 months Litter size : 1-3 Life span : Up to 10 years. Mating takes place during the July-September i.e.rainy season.Youngs are born from October to February
a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level.
•Mallon (2003). Tetracerus quadricornis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is vulnerable •Sharma, K., Rahmani, A. R. and Chundawat, R. S. (2005). Ecology and Distribution of Four-horned antelope in India: Final Report. Bombay Natural History Society. •Literature Cited •Walther, F. R. 1990. Spiral-horned antelopes. In Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals. Edited by S. P. Parker. New York: McGraw-Hill. Volume 5, pp. 344-359. Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder [editors]. 1993. Mammal Species of the World (Second Edition). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. Available online at http://nmnhwww.si.edu/msw/ •Additional Resources •Boitani, L., and S. Bartoli. 1982. Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mammals. New York: Fireside/Simon & Schuster, Inc. Entry 382. Khan, J. A. 1995. Conservation and management of Gir Lion Sanctuary and National Park, Gujarat, India. Biological Conservation 73(3): 183-188. •Khan, J. A., R. Chellam, W. A. Rodgers, and A. J. T. Johnsingh. 1996. Ungulate densities and biomass in the tropical dry deciduous forests of Gir, Gujarat, India. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12(1): 149-162. •Nowak, R. M. [editor]. 1991. Walker's Mammals of the World (Fifth Edition). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. •Prakash, I. 1991. Ecology of artiodactyls in the Thar Desert: their conservation in the Desert Biosphere Reserve. In Mammals in the Palaearctic desert: status and trends in the Sahara-Gobian region. Editted by J. A. McNeely and V. M. Neronov. Moscow: The Russian Committee for the UNESCO Programme on Man and the Biosphere. pp 243-250. •Rice, C. 1989. Four-horned antelope. Gnusletter 8(1): 7. •Singh, H. S. 2001. Antelopes and Gazelles: Distribution and population status in Gujarat, India. Indian Forester 127(10): 1098-1106. •Solounias, N. 1990. A new hypothesis uniting Boselaphus and Tetracerus with the Miocene Boselaphini (Mammalia, Bovidae) based on horn morphology. Annales Musei Goulandris 8: 425-440.
References
THANK YOU. Sarang S. DesaiV/05/0170‘A’ Batch
