Day 6 - Poop Patrol!
- Joanne Short
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Today was going to be a fantastic experience and we knew that we would be learning a lot. We were very lucky to be invited to go on a foot patrol around part of the forest with the rangers. This was a very special opportunity. It was an area of the forest which is one of the best corridors for wild animals between two conservation areas.
We met the forest guards at one of the patrol houses and were introduced to Mr Sunil Gurve - Round Officer and Mr Vitthal Sodgir of the Paoni Territorial Range, Maharashtra Forest Department. They had come to meet us and accompany us on our walk around the jungle.
We had several welcome photos and then had an official photograph taken to denote time, date and our exact location. After all the formalities we all set off into the jungle to start our data collecting.
While we were doing this a monkey started making some alarm calls which usually is an alert call that a predator is in the vicinity. Ten minutes after our photo shoot a tiger had sauntered down the road to that exact spot - I wasn’t sure whether to feel disappointed or terrified considering we were on foot.
It is the job of the seasonal workers to go around areas of the forest regularly to check on animal movement through the area. They collect poo specimens they see if they are fresh so that they can be analysed.
A lot can be found out about an animal in its ‘scat’ - including exactly what it has eaten recently. We were shown how this can be identified. By picking through one scat with a stick we saw hair, bones, teeth and hoof which confirmed that the leopard had recently killed a wild boar.
The latest technology is able to get DNA from a sample of scat, which is helping build a national database of wild animals to track their movements and numbers.
The different size of scat denotes what animal has passed by. We could see that a Leopard had definitely been using that particular area regularly and we discovered some rather fresh tiger scat which I found a little concerning. It was enormous! We were pointed out scrapes in the ground where a tiger had recently done a wee. John was brave enough to give it a sniff! He wasn’t impressed!
We came to a grassy clearing which was a typical area where a herd of deer may assemble at night. From there we were able to set up a drone to go up and view the area. In the footage we could see just how big the forest is, but also how close the residential villages are to the forest and the danger from wandering wild animals, which was quite shocking to see. They grow crops right up to the boundary of the Tiger Reserve putting themselves and their livestock at a huge risk. They often wander into the forest with their cattle to graze. The problem with this is that a cow or bullock is much easier pray to a tiger than having to chase deer or antelope around the forest.
We chatted about lots of the trees and plants growing in the area. By the end of the patrol I found that my jacket was completely covered in seeds that had attached themselves. Most of them were really sharp and difficult to release from the fabric. This demonstrates how plants have adapted themselves so that their seeds will be carried by passing animals and distributed elsewhere. Nature is an amazing thing.
Once we had walked for a few km and learnt a lot of new things about the jungle, we reached a beautiful lake in the middle of the forest. It was a stunning spot and we were given special permission to paint there for a couple of hours which was absolutely fantastic. The forest labourers stayed with us while John painted a fantastic painting of the lake - the birds were beautiful and so were the butterflies. It was very quiet and relaxing. We were so lucky to be given permission from the Forestry Commission to do this. We would like to thank them wholeheartedly.
Look out for the video we have made about our ‘poop patrol’ and watch John demonstrate how nice the smell of tiger wee is! And watch him complete his latest painting of the trip.
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