The Nilgai Antelope, which is also nicknamed the Blue Bull, can get to be big. 26. Nilgai herds raid and trample crop fields, often causing considerable damage and food shortages so farmers use live electric wires to guard their farms, which kills other animals as well. Nilgai are generally quiet but will make short guttural grunts when alarmed, and females make clicking noises when nursing young. [2], This antelope is endemic to the Indian subcontinent: major populations occur in India, Nepal and Pakistan, whereas it is extinct in Bangladesh. [27][28], The nilgai is the largest antelope in Asia. [2][52] However, a nilgai died in Dwarka (India) allegedly due to the heat wave and acute shortage of water. [2] The nilgai has been referred to by a variety of names: neelghae,[2] nilgau, nilgo,[1] nylghau,[5] and nylghai,[6] constructions referring to other "blue" animals. Even so, in areas where they are considered sacred they are not hunted.Â, In the 1920s, a ranch in south Texas brought nilgais to the United States for recreational purposes. [60] The Indian population was estimated at one million in 2001. It is difficult to account for the animals being thus so widely divided from their usual haunts unless as has been generally supposed, these Southern specimens are the progeny of a semi-domesticated herd, which, at some by-gone period, had escaped from the preserve of a native potentate.
100 %2 gFat. They are common in agricultural lands, but hardly occur in dense forest. These groups are generally small, with 10 or fewer individuals, though groups of 20 to 70 individuals can occur at times. Calves spend a month in hiding before beginning to accompany their mothers. [53], A 1994 study of the nilgai's diet in the Sariska Reserve revealed its preference for herbs and grasses; grasses became more important in the rainy season, while during winter and summer it fed additionally on flowers (Butea monosperma), foliage (Anogeissus pendula, Capparis sepiaria, Grewia flavescens and Zizyphus mauritiana), pods (Acacia nilotica, A. catechu and A. leucophloea) and fruits (Zizyphus mauritiana). For centuries Indian villagers have associated the nilgai with the cow, a sacred animal revered by Hindus, and the name ("gai" means "cow" in Hindi) indicates the similarity they saw with the cow. [20] Fossil relatives were once placed in the subfamily Cephalophinae[21] which now contains only the African duikers. [78] The nilgai was not widely hunted until the 20th century, when habitat degradation and poaching became rampant. Cholesterol mg/4 oz.
[87] Although blackbuck cause a similar problem, the damage caused by them is significantly lower as they merely break off young shoots. [18] The extant and extinct boselaphine forms show similar development of the horn cores (the central bony part of the horn). [2], Herbivores, the nilgai prefer grasses and herbs; woody plants are commonly eaten in the dry tropical forests of India. The word was first recorded in use in 1882. Nilgai herds raid and trample crop fields across these states,[82][83] often causing food shortages. These fights are characterized by displays of the enlarged chest, the throat patch and the beard while holding the head upright; and threatening the opponent by running with the horns pointed toward him and circling him.