| Fauna
Gujarat is very rich in animal life. The localised forest
areas of the Gir in Saurashtra, Panchmahals and Dangs are having hordes
of gazelles and antelopes. The Asiatic lion is now localised in the Gir
forest, which has also smaller mammals including languor's and blue bulls.
Gujarat having an extensive coastline, perennial rivers
and lakes and ponds are rich in a variety of fish.
 Besides
Asiatic lion, tiger, panther and cheetah, the wolf, jackal and fox are
also found in the forest areas of the state. Civets, the grayish languor,
rabbits and porcupines are some other animals found there. The wild ass
is a distinctive species found only in Gujarat, in the Rann of Kutch.
The black buck in herds and the spotted deer are among the antelopes found
in Gujarat.
The thick forests of Dangs, receiving maximum rains and
having abundant greenery, are the home of beautiful birds such as Trogon,
hornbills, barbets, babblers, racket-tailed drongos and minivets. The
sarus, pea-fowls, red-wattled lapwings, parakeets, babblers and mynas
are mostly found in the plains. The extensive coastal regions of the state
give shelter to a number of birds such as plovers, stints, sandi pipers,
curlews, lesser flamingoes, terns and gulls. During the winter, flocks
of migratory birds come down to Gujarat from faraway countries, some of
which have their habitat in Siberia. The great and the little Rann of
Kutch, when filled with water during favourable monsoon, serve as
breeding ground for flamingoes, pelicans and avocets.
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While drier areas of Kutch and north Gujarat serve as
haunts to gray partridges, larks, white-eared bulbuls, finch larks and
sand-grouses. The pied-crested cuckoo, migrating from East Africa comes
to Gujarat a little ahead of monsoon. Among the birds coming to Gujarat
in winter from the north can be included the rosy pelicans, white storks,
brahmany duck, which breed in Tibet, demoiselle, common cranes, other
varieties of ducks, coots, snipes, moorhens, curlews and stints.
The Nal Sarovar about 65km from Ahmedabad is a veritable
sanctuary of winter birds. Gujarat is also rich in song birds including
shama, whistling thrush, dhayal, a variety of larks, yellow-cheeks tit,
golden oriole and bulbuls. |
