Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park

          Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park is an asset of Bangladesh. It has a large collection of wildlife in their natural habitat. The number of veterinarian and worker are not sufficient for the maintenance of animal. Many animals are in cage. The security of animal and the visitors should be improved and housing should scientific, that is not now. Though it has some limitation and defects after all it is very useful to enrich our knowledge. And it should be continue in future to know the wildlife in their natural habitats.

     INTRODUCTION

General

Safari park is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles and observe the wildlife rather than viewing in cages or small enclosures eg- Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. A safari park, while larger than a zoo, is usually a very small area compared to game reserves in Africa. For example, African Lion Safari near Cambridge, Ontario, Canada is 750 acres, or 3 square kilometers. For comparison, Lake Nakuru in the Rift Valley, is 168 square kilometers, and a typical large game reserve is Tsavo East, also in Kenya, which encompasses 11,747 square kilometers. Safari parks often have other associated tourist attractions: golf courses, carnival rides, miniature trains, and gift shops.

History

The first lion drive-through safari park opened in 1963 in Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. In double-glazed buses, visitors made a tour through a one-hectare enclosure with twelve lions.

The first drive-through safari park outside of Africa opened in 1966 at Longleat in Wiltshire, England. Longleat, Windsor, Woburn and arguably the whole concept of safari parks were the brainchild of Jimmy Chipperfield, former co-director of Chipperfield's Circus, as detailed in his autobiography, "My Wild Life", the autobiography of Bob Lawrence (owner of West Midland Safari Park) and literature from the parks up until the 1990s. The former Windsor Safari Park was in Berkshire, England, but closed in 1992 and has since been made into a Legoland.

Between 1967 and 1974, Lion Country Safari, Inc. opened 6 animal parks, one near each of the following American cities: West Palm Beach, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Richmond, Virginia. The first park, in South Florida, is the only Lion Country Safari still in operation.

Burgers' Zoo at Arnhem, Netherlands, opened a "safari park" in 1968 within a traditional zoo. In 1995, Burgers' Safari modified this to a walking safari with a 250 m long board walk.

Most safari parks were established in a short period of ten years, between 1966 and 1975.

Marsh Crocodile

               

            Taxonomy:

                Kingdom: Animalia

                   Phylum: Chordata

                      Class: Reptilia

                         Order: Crocodylia

                            Family: Crocodydae

                               Genus: Crocodylus

                                   Species: Crocodylus palustris

Local name:

                  Bengali name: Mitha panir kumir

                   English name: Marsh Crocodile

Special introduction:

       It is one if the extinct reptile in Bangladesh.

Geographical distribution:

It is found in Bangladesh (preserved), India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Indo- China. In Bangladesh they were found only in the Padma, Meghna, Dhaleshwari, Karnafuly, including hilly river and their tributary. In Bangladesh they are not found in natural environment for last 15 years. If any of them is living at present, they may live in the river of northern side of Sundarban, where water is less salty.

Description:

Body weight- 110-115 kg

Body length: - 2-2.5 feet.

They have pair hands and legs, long tail, strong head, nostrils, and eyes above the head. The whole body is spined. Body is covered with hard scale. They have 66-68 sharp teeth. Male is larger than female.

Habit:

The marsh crocodile stay in sunlight for hours and thus save energy-it is one of the characters of the crocodile. They like to live in the water where depth is less than 16 ft.

Feed:

Their main feed is insects, fish, reptile, mammals (monkey, deer) etc.; at the zoo meat is provided. Some of them are ferocious enough to attack and eat human.

Reproduction:

Male crocodile earn maturity at the age of 10 and female at 6 years. They lay eggs 25-30 in number. Incubation period is 7 weeks. They lay eggs in sands.

Life span:

40-80 years

Special characters:

Among the reptiles only crocodile has four chambered heart which is divided into two atrium and ventricles. This type of heart is only found in aves and mammals.

 TIGER:

Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

  Class: Mammalia

   Order: Carnivora

    Family: Felidae

     Genus: Panthera

      Species: Panthera tigris

Local name:

Bangla name: Bagh.

English name: Bengal Tiger.

Hindi name: Sher.

Range:

The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) is the most common subspecies and we studied on this tiger in Bangabondhu Safari park. This tiger is found primarily in India and Bangladesh. It lives in varied habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves. Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg. However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 235 kilograms (520 lb). While conservationists already believed the population to be below 2,000, the most recent audit by the Indian Government's National Tiger Conservation Authority has estimated the number at just 1,411

Size:

Length of male: 10 feet

Length of female: 9 feet

Average weight of male: 180-230 kg

Average weight of female: 140-145 kg

Habit:

Tiger lives in humid evergreen forest, in dry open jungle and in the grassy swamps of the terai, while in the Sundarban it leads an almost amphibious life in a terrain trees, mud and water. There are three things are essential for the tigers-

1.      The neighbourhood of large animals on which it pray.

2.      Ample shade for sleep.

3.      Water to drink at thurst.

Feed:

Usually tiger hunts between sunrise and sunset. It hunts all kinds of animals including elephant buffalo and gaur. It usually pray on deer, nilgai, wild pig, bear as well as panther and other tigers. They also eats fowl, fish, reptiles etc. when they are hungry.

Reproduction:

Tigers seem to mate after rains and majority of youngs are born in between February to May.

 ASIAN ELEPHANTS:

Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

  Class: Mammalia

   Order: Herbivora

    Family: Elephantidae

     Genus: Elephus

      Species: Elephus maximus

Physical Appearance: Asian elephants differ in several ways from their African relatives. They have smaller ears which are straight at the bottom, unlike the large fan-shape ears of the African species. Asian elephants are much smaller, weighing between 6,615 and 11,020 pounds at a height of about 7 to 12 feet compared to the 8,820 to 15,430 at 10 to 13 feet of the African elephant.

Geographic Range: Asian elephants live in fragmented forests in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China (extinct in wild), Malaysia, Indonesia, and Borneo.

Biomes: Tropical savanna, tropical rainforest, tropical deciduous forest, mountains (Himalayas).

Habitat: Asian elephants live in many different habitats including open grasslands, marshes, savannas and forests.

IUCN Status: Endangered The IUCN's Species Survival Commission's Asian Elephant Specialist Group estimates that there are approximately 38,000 to 51,000 wild Asian elephants. In comparison, there are more than 600,000 African elephants.

Reproductive Cycle and Habits: Female Asian elephants are capable of giving birth approximately every 4-6 years, about 7 calves in a lifetime. Babies are carried inside elephant mothers for 19-22 months, almost 2 years. Asian elephants can live as long as 60-70 old. When adult male elephants search for a female to breed with they produce musth fluid signaling females that they are ready to mate. Elephants live in matriarchal (mother headed) families. Mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts all help raising babies. Male Asian elephants live alone or in male only groups.

Diet: Asian elephants are among the largest herbivores (plant eaters) preferring grasses, leaves, trees, and shrubs. Their diet varies from acacia trees to wild mangos.

Language: How many ways can you communicate? Asian elephants talk to each other by touch, sound and scent. When a young Asian elephant is stressed and nervous they will go to an adult and place the tip of their trunk in the adult’s mouth. Elephants also use a broad range of sounds to communicate. Recently scientists noticed elephants talk to each other at infrasonic (sounds humans are unable to hear) levels. Males secrete musth, a signal to local females that males are ready to reproduce.

Cultural Importance: Humans use elephants in Asia to log forests, transport heavy loads and carry tourists. Elephants can walk in areas where machines are unable to navigate. About 15,000 Asian elephants are held in captivity as work animals. Elephants are important in Asian folklore and religion. They are believed to be cousins of the clouds and able to cause lightening.

Size & weight:

·         Length: Over 10 feet

·         Height: Over 11 feet

·         Tail: 5 feet

·         Trunk: 7.5 feet

·         Weght: Male-3500-4000kg

Female-2800-3300kg

Reproduction:

·         Gestation period: 607-641 days

·         Puberty show: 8-12 years

·         Litter size: 1-2

·         Life span: 100-125 years

PIG TAILED MACAQUE:

 Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

  Class: Mammalia

   Order:Primates

    Suborder: Haplorrhini     Infraorder: Simiiformes      Superfamily: Cercopithecoidea       Family: Cercopithecidae        Subfamily: Cercopithecinae         Genus: Macaca

          Species: Macaca nemestrina

·         Other names:

Macaca Leonina: Macaca nemestrina leonina; northern pig-tailed macaque;  Macaca Nemestrina: Macaca nemestrina nemestrina; pig-tailed macaque, Sunda pig-tailed macaque, southern pigtail macaque, or Sundaland pigtail macaque; macaque à queue de cochon (French); berok or beruk (Malay); macaca cola de cerdo (Spanish); mentawaimakak, svinapa, or svinmakak (Swedish); ling kaang (Thai)

·         RANGE

Pigtail macaques have a wide range throughout Southeast Asia. Southern pigtail macaques are found in northeastern India, southern China, in Indonesia on Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatra, in eastern Bangladesh, as well as in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They are also found in Malaysia, both on the Malay Peninsula and on Borneo. Northern pigtail macaques are found in peninsular Thailand, through Burma and Indochina and into Bangladesh, India, and Southern China . There is some evidence of hybridization of the two species in Thailand, but interbreeding is not widespread.

·         HABITAT

Pigtail macaques are found in lowland and hilly primary rainforests and occasionally are found in swamp and secondary forests. They prefer undisturbed forests and are found in the highest densities in intact rainforests. Rainforests are maintained in warm and humid climates where temperatures range between 18 and 30° C (64 and 86° F) and where there is more than 2500 mm (8.20 ft) of rainfall each year, though there may be seasonality in rainfall.

Life span: 26 years
Total population: Unknown
Regions: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia
Gestation: 5-7 months (170 days)
Height: 495 to 564 mm (M), 467 to 564 mm (F)
Weight: 6.2 to 14.5 kg (M), 4.7 to 10.9 kg (F)

Night Heron:

Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

  Class: Aves

   Order: Ciconiiformes

    Family: Ardeidae

     Genus: Nycticorax

      Species: Nycticorax nycticorax

The night herons are medium-sized [heron]s in the genera Nycticorax, Nyctanassa and Gorsachius. The genus name Nycticorax derives from the Greek for “night raven” and refers to the largely nocturnal feeding habits of this group of birds, and the croaking crow-like call of the best known species, the Black-crowned Night Heron.

In Europe, the Night Heron is often used to refer to the Black-crowned Night Heron, since it is the only member of the genus in that continent.

Adults are short-necked, short-legged and stout herons with a primarily brown or grey plumage, and, in most, a black crown. Young birds are brown, flecked with white. At least some of the extinct Mascarenes taxa appear to have retained this juvenile plumage in adult birds.

Night herons nest alone or in colonies on platforms of sticks in a group of trees, or on the ground in protected locations such as islands or reedbeds. 3-8 eggs are laid.

Night herons stand still at the water's edge, and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night. They primarily eat small fish, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects, and small mammals. During the day they rest in trees or bushes.

There are seven extant species. The genus Nycticorax has suffered more than any other ciconiiform genus from extinction, mainly because of their capability to colonize small, predator-free oceanic islands, and a tendency to evolve towards flightlessness.

Griffon Vulture:

Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

  Class: Aves

   Order: Falconiformes

    Family: Accipitridae

     Genus: Gyps

      Species: Gyps fulvus

The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae.

The Griffon Vulture is 93–110 cm (37–43 in)long with a 230–269 cm (91–106 in) wingspan, and it weighs between 6 and 13 kg (13.2 and 29 lb).

Hatched naked, it is a typical Old World vulture in appearance, with a very white bald head, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It has a white neck ruff and yellow bill. The buff body and wing coverts contrast with the dark flight feathers.Like other vultures, it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks. It grunts and hisses at roosts or when feeding on carrion.

Little is known about the average life-span of these birds. It is approximated at 50 to 70 years in the wild, but the oldest death recorded in captivity is 118 years old.It breeds on crags in mountains in southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia, laying one egg. Griffon Vultures may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident.