page_title: Mukurthi National Park
section_title: Fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Mukurthi National Park / Fauna
context_page_description: Mukurthi National Park is a 78.46 km² protected area located in the western corner of the Nilgiris Plateau west of Ootacamund hill station in the northwest corner of Tamil Nadu state in the Western Ghats mountain range of South India. The park was created to protect its keystone species, the Nilgiri tahr.
  The park is characterised by montane grasslands and shrublands interspersed with sholas in a high altitude area of high rainfall, near-freezing temperatures and high winds. It is home to an array of endangered wildlife, including royal Bengal tiger and Asian elephant, but its main mammal attraction is the Nilgiri tahr. The park was previously known as Nilgiri Tahr National Park.
  The park is a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India's first International Biosphere Reserve. As part of the Western Ghats, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1 July 2012.
context_section_description: Several threatened mammal species live here including Nilgiri tahr, Indian elephant, Bengal tiger, Nilgiri marten, Nilgiri langur and Bonhote's mouse. Mukurthi is near the northern end of the range of the Nilgiri tahr. A three-day census in March 2007 estimated 200 tahrs in the park including 60 young ones sighted. There are also leopard, bonnet macaque, sambar deer, barking deer, mouse deer, otter, jungle cat, small Indian civet, wild dog, jackal, black-naped hare, shrew, Malabar spiny dormouse and soft-furred rat.
  Avifauna consists mostly of hill birds including the threatened laughingthrush, whistling thrush, woodcock, wood pigeon, black-and-orange flycatcher, Nilgiri flycatcher, grey headed flycatcher black bulbul, white-eye, Nilgiri pipit. The predatory black-winged kite, kestrel and black eagle may be seen in the grasslands.
  The area is home to many species of point-endemics among reptiles such as the geckos dwarf gecko spp.,  Nilgiri salea (Salea horsfieldii) and the skink (Kaestlea bilineata) the snakes horseshoe pit viper, checkered keelback, rat snake, Oligodon venustus, bronze-headed vine snake and several shieldtails of which Perrotet's shieldtail is the most common. Like reptiles, almost all species of amphibians here are endemic only to this region, except the widespread common Indian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus); main species include Bufo microtympanum and many species of tree frogs including Raorchestes tinniens, Raorchestes signatus, Raorchestes ravii,  Raorchestes thodai,  Raorchestes primarrumpfi, Ghatixalus variabilis and the dancing frog Micrixalus phyllophilus and aquatic ones like Nyctibatrachus indraneili and Fejervarya nilagirica. 
  Butterflies with Himalayan affinity like the blue admiral, Indian red admiral,  Indian fritillary, Indian cabbage white and hedge blues are seen here. Some streams had been stocked with exotic rainbow trout in the past.
caption: Indian red admiral
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