The Indian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus khur) also called as khur, is a subspecies of the Asiatic Wild Ass species. The Indian Wild Ass sanctuary is one of the last places where the endangered Indian Wild Ass is found. It’s heartening enough to see them thriving and in good numbers in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.
Wild Asses are fast runners clocking speeds in the range of 70-80 km/hour and can easily outrun a jeep and what I observed is that they are instant runners, i.e., a distant sound and they start galloping and seeing this behavior almost every time I saw these wild asses made me come up with the below –
“An ass started running and all the other asses followed him; they ran, ran till one ass stopped to look why they were running and the other asses stopped to look why the one ass stopped running.”
Well, taking it on a lighter note, that’s how I felt as I saw them mostly running. Only a few of them were at ease with us in their sight. I wonder, is it because the jeeps that come make them run to get ‘those shots’ or is their instinct to take off every time. Also, to be considered is that they do not have any natural predators to fear (except the wolves that would target the colts rather than grown adults). Yet, they are the flagship species of Rann and its pleasing to see them thriving in good numbers and expanding their domain to favorable areas.
next up is the 'Jamnagar Jatra'... stay tuned :)
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