The perceived beliefs and recorded observations pertaining to the egg-laying habits of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) have changed after the recent excessive rains in western Rajasthan. The critically endangered bird species has adopted an altogether new habit of laying a clutch of two eggs at a time after having a diet with additional proteins during the monsoon season.
Environmentalists in Rajasthan have hailed it as a new record as all experts had been reporting a clutch of a single egg by GIBs all through its natural history of more than a century. Scientists working on ex situ breeding of these endangered birds have discovered the new proclivity in Jaisalmer district's Desert National Park (DNP).
Four female GIBs laid two eggs at a time during the current rainy season in the DNP, while two others were observed laying clutches of two eggs each earlier in the 2020 season. Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India's (WII) scientist Sutirtha Dutta, who is leading the project for the breeding of the rare species, told The Hindu that six nests with two eggs each had been detected so far in the DNP.
