BHOPAL: Contribution of Collerwali tigress was remembered on foundation day of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) on March 1.
Pench Tiger Reserve is known for the tigress “Collarwali”. It has given birth to a quadruplets — taking her total tally of litter to 29 in her 13 years as of now. The highly fertile tigress 'T-15', popularly known as “Collarwali” because of her radio collar tagged on March 11,2008.
Assuming the tigress attained sexual maturity at the age of 4 she has littered every three years since — average litter size being quadruplets — for 13 years, the total tally of cubs would have been around 16 to 18 cubs so far.
A combination of factors — including good luck and Collarwali being an excellent mother and rearer of young ones- can be attributed to her success as a mother. Collarwali reportedly littered for the first time in May 2008 — she gave birth to triplets. In October 2008, Collarwali produced her second litter — quadruplets(one female and four males). On October 23, 2010, she had her third litter — quintuplets (five cubs—four females and one male) this time.
For the fourth times, On May 15,2012, she gave birth to three cubs—two female and one male. On the fifth time, she gave births to three males on October 16,2016.
Sixth time on April 16,2015, she gave births to cubs and 7th time in 2017, she gave birth to three cubs. On December 2018, she gave birth eighth times, to four cubs.
Pench field director, Vikram Singh Parihar said, “Collarwali’s mother — Barimada — was herself considered a prolific breeder — the mother of almost all the tiger show stars, who, at 16 years, had successfully reared eight litters as of 2015. Collarwali was born to Barimada around September 2-3, 2005 and was first sighted on September 9, 2005, when her eyes had not even opened.
