Kolkata: Ten days after leaving its 2.2-hectare enclosure at Buxa Tiger Reserve, the tigress brought from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve is gradually exploring her new habitat and marking spots, with her movements now spanning around 30 sq km.BTR-TF1’s scat analysis has indicated that the tigress might have killed a wild boar, offering an early sign that she is adapting to her habitat. There are indications that she may have made another kill recently, but the forest department is yet to confirm this.The three-year-old tigress walked out of the enclosure on Oct 4, two days after her ceremonial release into the wild on Oct 2. Since then, she has been covering a distance extending up to 8 km from the release point.The scat offers clues to a more significant development — the tigress marking her territory in a landscape where leopards, the principal predators until now, have not encountered tigers, said a source.“Scat proves that a tiger is active in an area, but it is primarily an indicator of digestion, territory marking and general presence rather than an immediate sign of a successful hunt,” a source said.“Leopards in the lowlands of Buxa have not seen tigers. It will be interesting to see how they react. Scat in the forest shows that the tigress is marking its territory, sending a message to other predators,” the source added.The source cited a similar situation during tiger relocation to Mukundara Hills in Rajasthan in 2023, when a tigress relocated from Ranthambore made a kill that a leopard attempted to steal. The source said the tigress eventually killed the leopard.The tigress is being monitored through a “virtual triangle” method involving ground tracking, satellite collar signals and night-vision drone cameras. Coordinates received from the collar help teams narrow down her approximate location, allowing ground teams to coordinate monitoring even when the animal cannot be spotted.
