 Reference Base  Big-game shooting in Cooch Behar, Assam, and the Bhutan D... |
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Ezra, A., 1917. Big-game shooting in Cooch Behar, Assam, and the Bhutan Duars, India. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1917 (3 April): 210
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
Distribution |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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Mr. Alfred Ezra,F.Z.S., gave a lantern exhibition illustrating Big-Game Shooting in Cooch Behar, Assam, and the Bhutan Duars, India, and made the following remarks : —
On account of the heavy grass- and reed-jungle, sometimes well over 20 feet high, so common in these districts, it is impossible to do any shooting on foot. All big-game shooting is done here with the aid of elephants, which are thoroughly trained for the purpose. During the shooting-season the country is generally burnt in patches, and here one follows the method adopted in covert-shooting in England. Two or more guns are sent in with the line of elephants, while some guns are posted forward as " stops," and the patches are beaten up to them. The elephants used for the "stops "are generally very steady and well-trained animals and are most valuable. The shooting arrangements at Cooch Behar are reduced to a science, and the men in charge of the line are so well trained that a tiger can invariably be beaten out to any particular "stop," should the Maharaja wish a special guest to have the first shot. My favourite way of shooting in this country is to go alone on a pad-elephant with an intelligent mahout (driver) who is a good tracker. In this way you go through the thickest parts of the jungle without disturbing the game, and you see the animals in their natural haunts, sleeping, grazing, or wallowing in the muddy streams. Being accustomed to always seeing wild elephants, the animals do not take the slightest notice of your mount, and you are able to get within a. few yards of them. At such close quarters the sportsman can pick and choose his head, only shooting something that is worth having as a trophy. The game found in this country consists of tiger, leopard, bear, rhino, buffalo, bison (gaur), sambur, swamp- deer, wild pig, and hog deer.
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