Vol. 8, Issue 7 (2019)

Author(s):
Sunil Kumar KK, Girish Kumar V, Nandi S, Divya V, Veena N and Sujay

Abstract:
The present study was conducted to establish the age and sex wise haematological profile of Royal Bengal tigers in India. The tigers maintained in Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India were employed for the present study. Tigers were housed and fed as per the standard feeding practice. The blood samples collected from 33 tigers (16 males and 17 females) were subjected to haematological estimation. Males and females were separately grouped as Group - 1 (ie. less than 4 years of age or before puberty), Group - 2 (ie., between 4 - 6 years of age or at puberty) and Group - 3 (ie., more than six years of age or after puberty). The differential leukocyte count (DLC) of all giemsa stained slide samples was done manually. The results of haematological parameters when compared between age groups revealed significant difference only for hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and lymphocytes. And also mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration shows significant difference when compared between sexes. These data provides baseline information of haematological variation in Royal Bengal tigers with respect to different age (pre pubertal, pubertal and post pubertal) and with respect to sex which we be helpful for therapeutic evaluateon and monitoring of Royal Bengal tigers kept in captivity.