The Indian wild ass, also known as the Ghudkhur or Khur, is a subspecies of onager found in southern Asia. It is listed as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its current population stands at over 4,800 individuals. Its habitat includes the saline deserts (rann), arid grasslands and shrublands of Gujarat province in India. Conservation efforts since 1969 have helped boost the population from a low of 870 individuals in the 1960s due to disease and other threats such as habitat degradation by salt activities, invasion of the Prosopis juliflora shrub, and encroachment and grazing by the Maldhari. A census conducted by the forest department of Gujarat in 2009 showed an estimated population of 4,038 individuals, which had increased to over 4,800 in 2015. The species is known to have inhabited the dry regions of northwestern India and western Pakistan in the past, but now survives only in the Little Rann, and a few have strayed towards the Great Rann of Kutch and the Jalore district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. A report by the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER) has recommended that the Thar desert in Rajasthan be developed as an alternative site for reintroducing Indian wild asses.
Posted by siddharthx on 2018-01-30 16:45:45