Hyderabad: After failing to trap the injured tigress known only as K4 with a Calvin Klein perfume, the forest department will use urine and scat (excreta) of a tiger to catch her. Veterinarians want to catch K4 to remove a metal snare which has clamped on her waist. Forest officials worry that the snare will cut into her body as she grows.
“We have collected the urine and scat of a male tiger to lure the tigress," said principal chief conservator of forest P.K. Jha.
Tigers usually mark their boundaries with scent, urine and droppings. These signal other tigers that they are about to enter a territory that belongs to another tiger. The forest officers, however, expect to attract K4 with the urine and the droppings so that she may come to mate with the male. A team of veterinarians consisting of Dr Naveen Kumar, Dr Hakeem and Dr Praveen have initiated the procedure at Chennur in Mancherial division.
The urine of a male tiger was collected from the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad. The idea is to tranquillize K4 when she comes to the spot, remove the snare around her waist, treat the wounds and release her.
The team is working at locations where the tigress was recently spotted. Six teams are working with more than 100 camera traps to track the movements of the tigress. The urine and the droppings are being deposited at a few locations where the pug marks of K4 were observed recently.
Usually, tigers mate after they are three years old and veterinary doctors say that K4 is healthy and may search for a male. “This method of using urine and droppings was successful in Maharashtra in catching a tiger recently and we have opted for it,” said Dr Naveen Kumar.
A senior wildlife expert from Telangana forest department said, “We have tried many procedures to catch the tigress. The tiger’s territory is marked with urine and the droppings. As there is no other male around the location of K4, there are chances that she will fall in the trap and assume that there is a male. We hope that this technique will give positive results in catching K4.”
