In August, two identical individuals of an Indian porcupine were filmed on a mobile phone on the territory of the Ile-Alatau State National Natural Park. The author is unknown, one of the residents of Kaskelen sent a video to the head of the forestry department. Field work has been carried out in this area. In the near future, a camera will be installed next to the hole. Before that, they had only met with one individual. With this video, you can see the increase in the spread of the Indian porcupine. The Indian porcupine is found in several gorges of the Aksai, Medeu branches of the territory of the Ile-Alatau State National Natural Park, the adjacent Almaty region, south of the administrative territory. Due to the fact that it is not visible during the day, it is very rare to meet an animal in the dark of night.
The Indian porcupine (Latin Hystrix indica, 1792) is an order of rodents (Latin Rodentia), the Porcupine family (Hystricidae), a rare, poorly studied species of the IV category. The only species of the family in the fauna of Kazakhstan. Its habitat is the relief of mountain gorges and subsoil at an altitude of 2000 m above sea level, inhabits rocky low mountains and foothills. (Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, 2010).
Signs of life are most often manifested at night. Body length is 80-90 cm, average weight is 13-30 kg, sometimes up to 25 kg. The specific color of the porcupine can be seen on the needles stuck to the body from the back. By making a hoarse voice, he defends himself from the enemy. Interestingly, the total weight of thousands of needles on the body is only about 100 grams. The body is brownish-black. The legs are short, the claws are strong (newspaper “native language”, February 13, 2014).
Dangerous enemies of the porcupine are jackals and stray dogs. Nevertheless, there is constant security in the gorges. In addition, a resident of the city of Issyk, who grows an Indian porcupine on his hands, made a proposal to the management in order to acclimatize several individuals in the national park in order to reproduce the porcupine in the wild. So far, it remains only a recommendation. If this is implemented, then only with the special permission of the OSH and DD Committee on Biological Justification of the Institute of Zoology. Our task is to protect and promote the spread of species included in the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
ҒЗЖ және ТАБӘ бөлімінің ғылыми қызметкері Жапарқұлов Т.М.