In a remarkable discovery, a rare Tibetan brown bear has been spotted in India for the first time. Camera traps installed by the Sikkim Forest Department and WWF-India recorded this rare species in the high altitudes of North Sikkim. Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Parveen Kaswan, who regularly shares interesting facts about wildlife, posted two pictures of the bear on his social media account.
”You are seeing the first ever picture of a rare Tibetan Brown Bear from #India. With this one more sub-species added to the Indian #biodiversity. This rare animal is documented in higher reaches of Sikkim with the joint effort of #Sikkim FD and WWF. So much India yet to be explored,” the pictures were captioned.
See the post here:
You are seeing first ever picture of rare Tibetan Brown Bear from #India. With this one more sub-species added to the Indian #biodiversity. This rare animal is documented in higher reaches of Sikkim with the joint effort of #Sikkim FD and WWF. So much India yet to be explored. pic.twitter.com/NvMohtXxjT
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) January 15, 2024
According to PTI, this rare bear is very different from the more commonly found Himalayan black bear in terms of its appearance, habitat, and behaviour, the officials said. The omnivore lives in high-altitude alpine forests, meadows, and steppe above 4000 m and feeds on marmots and alpine vegetation.
The Tibetan brown bear, also known as the Tibetan blue bear, is one of the rarest subspecies of bears in the world and is rarely sighted in the wild. Only a few were sighted from Nepal, Bhutan, and the Tibetan plateau.
Reacting to the phenomenal discovery, one user said, ”Oh wow. Awesome and its fur coat is so nice and thick. Super sighting.” Another commented, ”So much of nature as yet unexplored.”
