The great photographer and his little carnivore.....

N A Naseer writes about Nilgiri marten of pambadum shola National park.

"Lightning never strikes the same place twice or so it is believed. for me my experiences in the pambadum shola forest in kerala proved otherwise. It all began 20 years ago when i saw a nilgiri marten" Martes gwatkinsii" during my novice years in these parts of southern western ghats. i was too green then to understand how fortunate i was to sight this endemic rarity. for me it was just one among the multitude of small and big creatures to which our dark and mysterious forest are home.."

N A Naseer have acquired a decent reputation as a wildlife photographer and naturalist, both the life and his researches are much more inspiring like our corbett, anderson etc.. and I am too happy to share that i am a fan of him. when i reported a Nilgiri marten from the eravikulam national park, there was no one to hear me or to believe me, i was having a clear sight but unfortunately there was no one to report that i had a sight.at that moment i fixed the photograph of nilgiri marten taken by N.A Naseer in 2006 to my heart and i determined to take a photograph of that little amazing endemic carnivore...

he describes the second sight as

" it had only been a few minutes when we saw a small mangoose like animal with an incongruously long tail, rubbing its head and neck on the grasss and rocks along the path. its skin had a yellow patch that, in the morning sunlight almost appeared as if the animal was holding a dazzling gold bar close to its chest. it was a nilgiri marten and amazingly enough it was in the exact spot i had had my first sighting 20years ago.

An endemic mammal.. Nilgiri marten...

Like the Nilgiri tahr and rhododendron of the southern western ghats, the nilgiri marten is the south indian, estranged cousin of the Himalayan yellow throated marten . There is very little documented information on the Nilgiri marten and most of the recently recorded sightings are from forests in Kerala's western ghats.

Sighting indicate that it prefers high elevation forests with a strong inclination towards southern montane wet temperate forests. the omnivorous Nilgiri marten is known to forage on coffee beans but locals vividly describe it as an expert hunter of hare, squirrels ,barking deer, mouse deer..there have ben reports of four martens eating the carrion of a wild gaur and of a pair chasing the domestic dogs of firewood gatherers.