Wild Animals

In the farthest North is the snowy Mustagh Range which touches the borders of the Pamir. South of it is the Karakarum Range (gravel) with its highest peak Mt. Godwin Astin (28,244 ft.) or K2 the second highest peak in the world. There are glaciers between these ranges. The Kailas Range runs from the south east and goes to the north west along the right bank of the Indus with the shyok and the Gilgit affluents.

The Western Himalayan Range passes through the middle of the state parallel to the Kailas Range and has Nun Khun, Kolahoi and Harmoukh as highest peaks. South of it is the Pir Pantsal Range. These Ranges are drained by the Kishen Ganga, the Vetasta, the Chinab and other minor trihutories. In these ranges are situated the most glorious valleys as the Vale of Kashmir. In these natural habitats live the wonderful variety of fauna of the world.

It is a common animal in Lolab and other valleys. It is found between 6000-8000 ft. It causes a great damage to crops and walnuts. Its scientific name is Innuus rhesus.

The animal is found among the pines of Pantsal Range.

It is a dangerous animal and generally attacks cattle. These are rare in the valley.

Its fur is fine. It feeds on chickens and other small game birds. It is not common. Its cunning nature is proverbial. It is generally found to follow the leopard.

It is found in all villages and in waste lands. They come out during the night and howl. Their tail is long. Their skin is sometimes used as fur.

It is common on the mountain spurs of Ajis, the Wular and other sides. They damage crop. The tooth of a boar when hung around a neck is believed to safeguard the wearer especially a child from an evil eye.

This animal is found in all the high valleys of Kashmir. The Harbhagwan Valley was found riddled with holes and a number of animals standing on their hind legs and hooting on the intruder and disappearing at once into their holes. These are handsome animals with reddish colour from the skin of which furs are made. They are found along Gilgit and Ladakh.

It is known in Ladakh by Nyan and female by Nyamme. The chief haunts of this sheep are Chang-Chinne valley in Ladakh and the neighbourhood Pankgong Lake and Chinese Tibet. The male is light brown in colour and with a streak running along the chest, stomach and the inside of the legs. The female is brownish on the upper parts or yellowish white in the lower parts.

It is also known by the name of Urial. It is distributed from Tibet to Sind. The range of this race lies from Astor to Zanskar, Ladakh. It is a good climber.

Ladakhis call it Narpu. It is widely distributed. It visits high elevations at 17,000 ft. on the Sasser pass leading to Mustang. In winter for the sake of food it comes down below 10,000 ft.

Ward remarks that in absence of iron implements its horns which are hard were used as hoes in rough cultivation.

It is called Kail. In Ladakh it is called skya. It is from this goat that fine wool, called 'Kail Fhamb' in Kashmiri is obtained. This stuff is used in weaving shawls. It is from finer quality of 'Kail Fhamb' that finest quality of shawls are made. Ring shawls are so fine that they are said to pass through the ring of a signet.

The animal is common in Baltistan, Ladakh and in the Shyok Valley. It also bounds in the mountains of Northern Kashmir, Altai and Thain Shan Mountains.

They leave their winter quarters and come down in morning and evening hours to graze green grass. Their real home is among cliffs.

An ibex seems only lying among the precipices from where he can look down and watch the low ground whilst a 'nanny' does sentry duty in the vicinity. In spring the flocks of ibex are fairly large and all sizes are banded together, but in summer large bucks wander off on the heights leaving females and kids on the lower ground.

In Chamba it is called kart. It is found among rocks girdled with cedar trees, Pantsal Range, lower Wardwon~, Kishtwar Bhaderwah and Chamba in the eastward regions of the Punjab and the Utter Pradesh Himalayas and on the southern mountain Range. The female is smaller and has less shaggy hair.

It is found among rocks and forests where under growth is very sparse. It is easy to find, but not always to get at it. Its habitat extends from Kashmir to Kashtwar, Chamb, Kulu and as far as Nepal. A frightened screw utters screaming whistle which when over started will continue for sometime. The conspicuous colour is blackish red and reddish grey. They wander about very little and prefer to live on the same hill. 'The young are born about May and stay for a long time with their mother. The pairing season is in autumn.'

It is widely distributed and prefers to be in any ground between 2,000 ft. to about 8,000 ft. In winter it finds difficult to descend below the snow line.

They are common on the Pantsal Range. There are several races found in the wild mountain areas spread from the Shiwalik Range to Jammu, Chamb, Madhya Pradesh, Nepal, Tibet, Burma and China.

This animal is held sacred in Jammu. It is protected. It is a wonderful jumper and is a heavily built animal. It is found all along Kumaon, Jammu and Sialkot. Its skin is used for mushak to carry water or to make a raft in crossing water.

This Antelope prefers to live over heights of 14,500 ft. and is possible that they might be migrating there. In spring sexes segregate and young males remain with females and later females are left alone. In summer they migrate from Mastagh Range and Karakorams. They are gregarious.

This is an animal of plateau of Northern Ladakh, Rupshu and by the Kyun salt lakes. It is found in small herds and is distributed to Turkistan and Mangolia. More than a dozen are rarely seen in a herd. It does not descend below 14,004 ft. In summer it is found in higher elevations.

The Markhor is found on all the southern, eastern and northern Range of the Kashmir Valley. It is also found in Baltistan, Chilas, Gilgit, Chitral, Baluchistan, and Afganistan. They are gregarious and migratory and wander about in search of pasturage from place to place. They have keen powers of scent and sight and are hard to approach. They are shy animals. In summer they go upto 16,000 ft. Their winter coat is grey or yellowish grey, but as the summer comes on the general colouring changes from reddish to yellowish brown. The old bucks have griezzled beards, darker in front and underneath. The front portions of the legs below the knees are dark.'

The animal prefers to be in rocky mountains which are in the neighbourhood of low ground of 7,000 ft. or less. In winter it moves, lower down. It does not live in the high hills covered with deep snow. In the day time they rest high up. In the evening they rush down from the steepest slopes of the mountains with a great speed.

Leopards are beautiful animals. They are ferocious. Where deer, sheep and goat, whether tame or wild, go, there the leopards come.

They are found in hilly parts, Dachigam Rakh and such like places. In snow, leopards kill stag.

It is an animal of high elevations and generally comes out during night. It is found in Gilgit, Ladakh and Baltistan.

The habitat of this animal extends throughout Gilgit, Ladakh and Turkestan from 6,000 ft. to great heights. It is a powerful animal.

This cat has a red colour with dark lines above the back. The lower parts are lighter in colour, the underpart of the tail is whitish. The cheeks are marked by a line of white and yellowish white. Also near the eye there are blackish spots. The ears are black.

The cat is found in Ladakh, Turkestan and Mangolia. A live full grown male measures (Body and head) 1'-1" and tail 8.5". The hair on its body give a curious silvery appearance of shades of brown marked with blackish brown. On the back the sides have cross stripes of deep brown. The lower portions are pure white. The limbs in parts are tawny marked with black. The head is marked with irregular spots. The fur is very dense silky and long.

The cat has a beautiful skin. The general colour is light tawny with black and broad lines on the back merging into black spots. On the hind parts and limbs and on the legs are three distinct black bars. The lower portions are spotted.

The tail is marked with black spots. A white line extends from the eyes to the back of the head. The ears are black edging on to the white and the inside of the ear is tawny. There are other cats also.

The jungle cat (Felis chaus), the waved cat (Felis torquata) the desert cat (Felis ornata).

These beautiful animals are killed for their skin. They are the charm of the land and need to be preserved for natural beauty.

The bear is a common animal. It creates havoc in maize fields. He moves into the lower ranges where they can get food. Shepherds in Harbhagwan Valley told me of their several encounters with bears when they went to tend their flocks. When the female bears cubs or is about to have cubs lie up in winter so also do old males who live in the caves or in the hollow tree in the higher mountains.

Baltis call it Dinmer. This bear is not now found in great numbers. It is said that this bear has acute sense of smell while it is devoid of sight and hearing. This is not as fierce as the black one.

Tibetian's call it Kiang. This wild ass is found in Mongolia, Turkestan and Ladakh. The upper portions of the body of the animal are ruddy chest nut, while underneath it is white. A dark brown bar runs from nape of the neck to the tuft of the tail.

'The Kiang is much given to galloping on the hard stony plains, its great weight and velocity with which it travels, but for the protection afforded by Nature would destroy the whole structure of the leg'. - Ward

The padding material of the foot is elastic. A herd consists of three to ten or twelve. The wild Ass is shy but inquisitive and when danger is confirmed, will stand for sometime snort and gallop off.

The animal is called Dong by the Tibetians. An old bull appears a mass of black hair which flow down from the body, shoulder sides and chest. The tail has a bunch of hair over a foot in thickness fore-legs, almost concealed by hair. The tail 'har bush' is used in worship. The sense of hearing and smelling is highly developed. In spring and summer a large number of cows and calves congregate on a good pasture land. Bulls are generally found in parties of three or four till late summer. The breeding season extends through July, August and September.

One male is accompanied by four or more cows. Wild yaks cross freely with the Ladakhi cattle which are turned out when the pairing season begins.

'The local name of the hybrid is "ZO" for the male and Tsomo for the female animal. The cross breed beasts are very sure footed. They are used for riding and are capable of carrying a load of about 200 lbs. on very difficult ground.' -Ward

This useful Deer extends all along the Himalayas, China and Siberia. The fur of the animal is coarse and brittle. The Hindus wrap the skin of this animal round the body when the boy is invested with the Holy Thread. The ceremony is held with grcat sanctity. Both the sexes are hornless.

It is a pity that this animal is killed for musk pod. Hence they are decreasing in numbers. Such useful animal needs to be prescrved. When the animal is killed the musk pod round the naved of the animal is tied. It brings very high price. It is called 'Nafa'. It is used for medicine and writing charms. Another variety of the animal is Barking Deer (Muntiacus vaginalis) which is confined to the hilly tracts of India.

This stag is found throughout the valley excluding the Pantsal and Kaj Nag Ranges. It is chiefly found in Wardwan Valley, Kashtiwar, Bhaderwah, Gurez and in Tilail villages. It is also found in Chamba State.

When on the top of Zaberwan hill (9,000 ft.), with a party of students, we found half a dozen of the kind on the hill amidst the tall grass.

Female has no horns. The colouring depends on the climate of the place where they live and also on the age. The hair on the neck is coarse, long and sometimes thick. This is much less marked on the female than on the male. The hair on the lower part of the neck of the stag is very long and in an old animal very dark brown. 'Big stags cast their horns about March 15 to April 1st. Young ones often carry their antlers into May. After shedding their horns most go up hill and congregate under the snow line, as soon as the weather get warm. They cross the passes which lead to Kashtawar or Wardwan or occupy highest ravines in the Sind, the Lidder or in the passes leading to Baltistan'. - Ward

The rutting seasons commence about September 15. In hard winters when there is heavy snowfall the stags come down low and in March also where there is green pasturage they descend. Sadhus like to sit on the skin of the stag for it is warm and adds an aura of sanctity to their devotion.

There is Beauty in Rock.
There is Beauty in Plant.
There is Beauty in Animal.
There is Beauty in Space.
Beauty and Love are interdependent.
God is Love.
Love envelops All.
May Peace be to All.