10 Fun Facts About Indian Animals

India is rich in biodiversity. It is actually one of 17 megadiverse countries and includes 3 the world’s 36 hotspots for biodiversity: the Western Ghats, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Indo-Burma hotspot. So, let’s travel through rainforests, Himalayan mountains, grasslands, and coral reefs to discover some of the animals that call the seventh-largest country in the world home!

10 Fun Facts About Indian Animals

Bengal tiger

The Bengal tiger is the largest cat and the most common tiger. They number about half of all tigers. Their habitats stretch across the country, except for the Thar Desert, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Kutch. Research has theorised that each Bengal tiger has unique stripes – no two are alike! Just as all humans have unique fingerprints, so do tigers with stripes, and no two tigers will ever look the same.

Russell’s Viper

This viper comes from the grasslands and shrubs of North-Eastern India and was discovered by the Scottish herpetologist Patrick Russell, who first described many of India’s snake species. Russell’s viper is one of the big four snakes in the country and is responsible for causing more snakebite incidents and deaths than any other venomous snake.

Himalayan Newt

This little critter is only found in the Darjeeling district of India. They are the sole representative of the Caudata order among amphibians on the Indian subcontinent. They’re a semi-aquatic amphibian found in hilly lakes and water bodies at high altitudes.

Indian rhinoceros

Kaziranga National Park is home to a large number of one-horned Rhinoceros. The forest within the park has a whopping 2,000 of them! They are the largest species of rhino on Earth and males and weigh up to 3 tonnes!

Peacock

These birds are a type of peafowl, with males being peacocks and females being peahens. India adopted the peacock as its national bird in 1963, and it is one of the country's national symbols. They’re mentioned in the Uttara Ramayana, a famous text from Ancient India. The peacock originally had dull feathers until it saved someone during battle. In return, they blessed the peacock, its colourful plumage that has thousands of ‘eyes’.

Fire ants

Fire ants are a common pest that invade houses, roads, trees, and other areas in the village of Brahmansahi. Local sources say the ants began invading after a flood caused by torrential rain.

Manta rays

Manta rays are the largest rays in the world and can weigh up to 1.5 tonnes! The market for manta rays and devil ray gill plates has boomed in recent years, marketed as a medicinal tonic claimed to detoxify and purify the body. There is no scientific evidence supporting these claims, and they are actively harming ray populations. India was identified as one of the top source countries for supplying gill plates. Local conservation efforts in India are attempting to target this.

Purple Frog

This species is endemic to the Western Ghats. Females carry the males on their backs to crevices along fast-flowing streams to lay eggs. These frogs spend most of their life burrowed underground and only resurface for two weeks during the monsoon season to mate.

Dugong

Dugongs are a protected species in India, and can be seen in the Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, the Gulf of Kutch, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sadly, the population used to thrive but has declined in recent years to about 200 individuals. Also called ‘sea cows’, they graze peacefully on seagrasses in shallow coastal waters.

Sea Pig

Sea pigs are a type of sea cucumber and are super fragile. If brought to the water’s surface, they completely disintegrate. Found in the Indian Ocean, they can survive up to 1,000 metres down on the seabed.

So there you go, some of our favourite Indian animals! Got a suggestion for what country we should do next? Let us know in the comments!