7 Species of Fauna in Western Ghats of India

The Western Ghats lies with the Sahyadri mountains ranges along the western side of India and separates the Deccan plateau from a narrow coastal plain of the Arabian Sea. The beautiful green valley is home to thousands of wild animal species including at least 325 globally threatened species. The fauna of western ghats includes 139 mammal species, reptiles, the amphibians- endangered purple frog, 102 species of fish, molluscs, annelids, 508 bird species with malabar grey horn bill and beautiful malabar parakeet and roughly 6,000 species of insects with some of the most beautiful butterfly.

The national parks and  hill ranges of Western Ghats serve as an important wildlife corridors to big Indian cats, Great Indian elephants, wild boars, vulnerable Gaur – The Indian bison and vulnerable sloth bears. Apart from the above listed wild species Western Ghat also home to India’s unique wild species such as Indian flying fox, Indian giant squirrel and Nilgiri tahr. Recently Western Ghat is announced as one of the UNESCO world heritage site in India.

Mammals

lion-tailed macaque

The great Western Ghats are home to thousands of rare and magnificent mammals including The big cats of India black panther, Leopard and the Royal Bengal Tiger. The endangered mammal of the Western ghats are lion-tailed macaque and malabar large-spotted civet. Western Ghats support a diversity of natural habitat and the species of endemic mammals found nowhere else on earth.

The Nilgiri bio-sphere is home to the largest population of Asian elephants and forms an important project elephant and project tiger reserve. Two of the rare animal of western ghat is nilgiri marten and nilgiri tahr.

Birds

Malabar-Parakeet

The world’s most biodiversity hotspot is home to 508 species of bird,which are also found in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve. The western ghats endemic birds are the most beautiful Malabar parakeet, nilgiri wood-pigeon, malabar grey horn bill, grey-headed bulbul, nilgiri flycatcher and other giant flying predators.

The malabar parakeet one of the most beautiful bird is endemic to Western ghats and palani hills is the best place to see this beautiful bird of Western India. This place is paradise for nature lovers and bird watchers,  bhadra wildlife sanctuary is the best place to spot the colorful species of birds around the Western Ghat.

Reptiles

Malabar-Pit-Viper

The Western ghats has an impressive diversity of reptiles including one of the most dangerous snake of Western ghats, a Viper. There are 13 species of lizards found in Western ghats, few of them are monitor lizard,dwarf gecko and the malabar flying lizard. The great Western ghats is also home for the largest venomous snake of world and biggest venomous snake in India, king cobra.

The giant king cobra inhabits and pray into the endangered rain forests of the Western ghats to the dense forest of Kerala. Crocodiles and other venomous exotic reptiles made Western Ghats very dangerous during the monsoon season but Western ghat looks amazing during the monsoon season and one of the best destination to visit during the rain.

Amphibians

Malabar-Purple-Frog

The amphibians of the Western ghats is specially rich in its amphibian diversity. There are more than 80% of the 179 amphibian species being endemic to the region, including endangered purple frog and Malabar flying frog. The endangered purple frog also known as pig nose frog is a living fossil. The rainforests of these mountains are home for diverse and unique species of frogs, four new species of anurans have been described recently from the Western Ghats.

Fish

Western-Ghats-Fish

The numerous rivers and streams that originate in the western ghats are home to a remarkable variety of fish. The exotic water bodies of western ghats listed around 218 species of primary and secondary freshwater fishes. The global biodiversity hotspots is home to several brilliantly colored ornamental fishes, like barb, puffer fish and catfish. Three major rivers of Western Ghats the Godavari, Krishna, and Holy Kaveri, numerous waterfalls and magnificent lakes are home for many species of fishes.

Insects

Western-Ghat-Butterflies

The global hot spot of Western ghats is also well known for its insects, 334 species of butterfly, 43 species of bugs and many more unknown insects. The tropical rain forests is home for a large number of species of day-flying insect, night flying to aquatic insects. Western ghats is one of the global biodiversity hotspots which have the wonderful world of insects. There are around 6000 insect species found in the Western ghats and Nilgiri biosphere reserve area.

Molluscs

Western-Ghats-Snails

The non-marine molluscs fauna of India are the part of molluscan family. There are 5070 species of marine and non-marine molluscs living in the wild India,with species of gastropods and bivalves. The gastropods are more commonly known as snails and slugs.  The seasonal rainfall patterns of the western ghats provides a good habitat for land snails.

 

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