Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Artiodactyla > Bovidae > Boselaphus > Boselaphus tragocamelus

Boselaphus tragocamelus (nilgai)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The nilgai or blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus) (pronounced /ˈnil-ˌgī/) (literally meaning "blue cow") is the largest Asian antelope and is endemic to the Indian subcontinent. The sole member of the genus Boselaphus, the species was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1766. The nilgai stands 1–1.5 metres (3.3–4.9 ft) at the shoulder; males weigh 109–288 kilograms (240–635 lb), and the lighter females 100–213 kilograms (220–470 lb). A sturdy thin-legged antelope, the nilgai is characterised by a sloping back, a deep neck with a white patch on the throat, a short crest of hair along the neck terminating in a tuft, and white facial spots. A column of pendant coarse hair, hangs from the dewlap ridge below the white patch. Sexual dimorphism is promi
View Wikipedia Record: Boselaphus tragocamelus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
6
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
30
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 13.68
EDGE Score: 2.69
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  396.834 lbs (180.00 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  12.952 lbs (5.875 kg)
Diet [2]  Frugivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  20 %
Diet - Plants [2]  80 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  2 years 2 months
Gestation [1]  8 months 15 days
Litter Size [1]  2
Litters / Year [1]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  22 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  6.724 feet (205 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Himalaya Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Canis lupus pallipes (Indian grey wolf)[5]
Cuon alpinus (Dhole)[7]
Hyaena hyaena (Striped Hyena)[5]
Panthera pardus (Leopard)[5]
Panthera tigris tigris (Bengal tiger)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Food habits of ungulates in dry tropical forests of Gir Lion Sanctuary, Gujarat, India, Jamal A. KHAN, Acta Theriologica 39 (2): 185-193,1994.
♦ 5Boselaphus tragocamelus, DAVID M. LESLIE, JR., MAMMALIAN SPECIES 813:1–16 (2008)
♦ 6"Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review", MIKE SHANAHAN, SAMSON SO, STEPHEN G. COMPTON and RICHARD CORLETT, Biol. Rev. (2001), 76, pp. 529–572
♦ 7Cuon alpinus, James A. Cohen, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 100, pp. 1-3 (1978)
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
♦ 10Nunn, C. L., and S. Altizer. 2005. The Global Mammal Parasite Database: An Online Resource for Infectious Disease Records in Wild Primates. Evolutionary Anthroplogy 14:1-2.
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0