GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD

About:

• Scientific Name: Ardeotis nigriceps.
  
  
• Characteristics:
  • Physical description: Black crown on the forehead contrasting with the pale neck and head. The body is brownish and the wings are marked with black, brown and grey.
    
    
  • Diet: They feed on grass seeds, insects like grasshoppers and beetles, and sometimes even small rodents and reptiles.
    
    
  
  
  
• Distribution:
  • India, effectively the only home of the bustards, now harbours less than 150 individuals in five States.
    
    
  • Today, its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small population also occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
    
    
  • It is the State bird of Rajasthan.
    
    
  
  
  
• Habitat:
  • Bustards generally favour flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction and disturbance, therefore adapt well in grasslands.
    
    
  • They avoid grasses taller than themselves and dense scrub like thickets.
    
    
  
  
  
• Conservation status:
  • Listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972,
    
    
  • Listed in Appendix I of CITES,
    
    
  • Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List
    
    
  
  
  
• Threats: Threat to this species include:
  • Occasional poaching outside Protected Areas,
    
    
  • Habitat loss due to widespread agricultural expansion, infrastructural development such as irrigation, roads, electric poles, as well as mining and industrialization,
    
    
  • Bustards, with their poor frontal vision and heavy bodies, have also died due to collision with high tension electric wires.