Kolkata, Jan 27: After collecting a record number of cub pugmarks in the biennial tiger census at the Sundarban Tiger Reserve recently, wildlife officials seem to have struck gold again with another exciting find -- two animal species thought to have become locally extinct have been spotted after long years in the swampy forests. The deadly king cobra (ophiophagus hannah) and the friendly otter (lutra perspicillata) have resurfaced in the world's largest mangrove tigerland, the former after over a decade and the latter a quarter century after it was last sighted.
"This is a great find ... Wildlife experts had almost written these species off from the faunal wealth of the biodiversity hotspot," Sundarban Tiger Reserve director P Vyas said.
The finds have great ecological significance since the king cobra, an endangered predatory species which solely feeds on other snakes, denotes a healthy population of snakes in the over 9000 sq km forests between India and Bangladesh.
The smooth Indian otter, on the other hand, feeds primarily on fishes and is an indicator of a balanced marine life in the creeks and rivers criss-crossing the forests.
"The Sundarban has lost many species like the Javan and Indian rhinos, wild buffaloes and the barking deer in the last few hundred years. We were worried that these two species, not sighted for long, might be going the same way. Thankfully, we were wrong," Vyas said. Bureau Report