Horn, OK Please.

16th January 2015

The magical Taal Chhapar grasslands in Rajasthan. A tiny little sanctuary at seven square kms on the eastern borders of the Thar.  We were coming from the western ends of the desert and the gigantic Desert National Park (more than 3000 sq kms).

We left Sujangarh and motored to the ghoshaala in the early morning mist, where we chased the tree creeper most successfully.

So it was with cheer and anticipation that we arrived at this little sanctuary of the blackbuck.  Antilope cervicapra rajputanae.  Bhanu had visited Taal Chhapar in 2014, and her pictures of the beautiful blackbucks in the rolling grasslands had piqued my interest.

The 7-8 sq kms of this sanctuary is filled with grassland and saline rock and khejri trees.

Blackbuck are at home in grasslands, no forests for them.  The browns merging with the mothiya grass and only their horns standing out like a ships' flag mast! The grasslands give them an advantage when fleeing from predators, and they do not mind the semi-arid conditions. So, as we convert grasslands into farms, the blackbuck habitat shrinks.  

These beautiful antelopes are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, and we are the only country with a sizeable though endangered population.  Hunted with cheetahs by our maharajahs, protected fiercely by the Bishnois, they seemed almost mythical and magical as they moved around in the grass.  

The males have horns and the skin turns darker with age.  The fawns don't have horns and are a much lighter hue.  The ponds are formed in the low-lying parts of the sanctuary.

Young males, with a fawn brown colouring.

An adult male posed proudly, its horns resplendent.  And those rings around the eyes like big moons.

Those horns!  "A well-formed pair of horns on a mature blackbuck male may reach two feet in length and have a nearly equal spread between the tips." observes R K Menon

They grow from the base, do not fall off, grow spiralling outwards and are a pretty handy weapon of territoriality, as we saw later.    

As dusk fell, we grew quiet, watching these shadows pass by in the grass, their silhouettes like a Japanese painting.

As I saw the sun go down, I dreamed of the plains of Africa.  Would I ever make it there?

But the drama of nature had one more act.  A male passed purposefully on the track ahead of us.

And before our eyes, horns were locked and a turf war began.

Just as quickly. it ended, with both the males trotting off in different directions, and to us, it seemed like it was a "draw"!

"Blackbuck are territorial animals. A territorial animal like the blackbuck male holds a piece of meadow or land that he defends against invasion of conspecific males. The male in its white and black coat stands prominently on its territory, which he hasfought for and taken from an earlier holder or, in some cases,colonised by himself. The ownership of the territory may pass on from one individual to another each year or a single, strong male may be able to retain it for several years. 
Fights between males for territory possession can be violent.The two males clash head on to lock horns and push mightily against each other. This is where the corkscrew shape of the horns comes into use. The spirals of the horns lock into one another so that they do not slip, much as the antler of deer like chital lock during battle. Where the males are almost evenly matched, a fight may continue over a few days. 
After the first bout, the contestants withdraw for a short while, only to clash again. The contestants engage, break off, and re-engage in this turf battle until the issue is settled. When the loser flees, it is usually chased only for a few yards, and then it may be seen somewhere else where it is more comfortable.
The winner then stands in the territory waiting for the females to come, for, in blackbuck, territory is the ticket to reproductive success. When the females do arrive, the male tries to herd them and keep them within his patch of land. This it does by what is called the 'head-up' or 'nose-up' display. The male raises its tail upright to show the white underside, raises his nose till the horns are almost flat along its back, turns its ears downward and backward and moves with mincing steps, all the while forcing the females deeper inside his territory. It may also grunt during this behaviour. The females may move inward in response to the 'head-up' display and begin to graze there, but if they are not so inclined, they simply walk across into an adjoining territory. 
The male has no recourse other than to do the'head-up' display in front of the wandering female. It appears strange that once a female or herd of females crosses over into another territory, the pursuing male will stop short at the end of his territory and not take one step more. In most cases, the neighbouring male will come forward to escort the female into its own territory.To the human eye, the exact demarcation line between two adjoining territories is not always visible."

The Quintessential Antelope - Life of the Blackbuck - by R K Menon