Nilgiri Marten - On the Brink of Extinction

In Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu, inside the Anamalai Wildlife Division, is the Valparai Shola National Park. Its undulating terrain, filled with the shola grasslands and temperate forests trees, forms the ideal habitat for several animals endemic to the Western Ghats. One of them is the Nilgiri marten. Belonging to the same family as the badgers and weasels, this Indian marten is a small carnivore, found exclusively in the Western Ghats. Nilgiri martens (Martes gwatkinsii) are endemic to the Western Ghats mountain range of southern India, which is found within the oriental geographic range.