UPSC Prelims 2024 Q23: Indri, Elk and Bonobo — Native Habitats

Consider the following pairs:

| Sl.No. | Country | Animal found in its natural habitat |

| 1 | Brazil | Indri |

| 2 | Indonesia | Elk |

| 3 | Madagascar | Bonobo |

How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

  1. Only one
  2. Only two
  3. All three
  4. None

Answer: (d) None

Statement-wise explanation

  • 1: incorrect — The indri (Indri indri) is the largest living lemur. Lemurs occur naturally only on Madagascar, and the indri lives only in the rainforests of north-eastern Madagascar. Brazil has no lemurs; its primates are New World monkeys such as tamarins and capuchins. The IUCN Red List classes the indri as Critically Endangered.
  • 2: incorrect — The elk (wapiti, Cervus canadensis) is a large deer of cold northern lands. It ranges from the Yukon to northern Mexico in North America, and across the high grasslands of Mongolia, southern Siberia and the Altai and Tien Shan mountains in Asia. In British usage 'elk' means the moose, which is also a northern animal. Neither lives in equatorial Indonesia, whose native deer include the Javan rusa.
  • 3: incorrect — The bonobo (Pan paniscus) is a great ape endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lives only in the forests south of the Congo River, which keeps it apart from chimpanzees and gorillas to the north. IUCN lists it as Endangered, with about 15,000–20,000 left in the wild. There are no apes on Madagascar; the island's primates are all lemurs.

How to eliminate

One fact solves most of this question: the indri is a lemur, and lemurs belong to Madagascar. That fact rules out two pairs. It puts the indri on Madagascar, not in Brazil, so pair 1 is wrong. It also means the animal UPSC should have paired with Madagascar is the indri, so the bonobo in pair 3 is a reshuffled name. Even without knowing the bonobo's home, remember that Madagascar has no apes at all. For the elk, basic geography is enough: it is a large deer of cold northern forests and grasslands, and a temperate animal like that does not fit equatorial Indonesia. When UPSC lists three country–animal pairs and one animal clearly belongs to a country already in the list, the names have probably been shuffled. 'None' then becomes a serious option. Facts to remember: indri → Madagascar; bonobo → DR Congo, south of the Congo River; elk → North America and Central/East Asia.

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Endemic fauna: where UPSC's 'exotic' animals actually live

An animal is endemic when it occurs naturally in only one area. Islands and areas cut off by barriers produce the most endemics. Madagascar split from Africa and then from India millions of years ago, so its animals evolved in isolation. All lemurs, from the tiny mouse lemurs to the indri, are found naturally only there. In the same way, the Congo River acts as a barrier: bonobos live south of it and chimpanzees north of it.

Animal Group Native range IUCN status
Indri Lemur (primate) NE Madagascar only Critically Endangered
Bonobo Great ape DR Congo, south of Congo River Endangered
Elk / wapiti Deer North America; Mongolia, S. Siberia, Altai–Tien Shan Least Concern
Orangutan Great ape Borneo and Sumatra (Indonesia, Malaysia) Critically Endangered
Komodo dragon Lizard Komodo and nearby islands, Indonesia Endangered
Golden lion tamarin New World monkey Atlantic Forest, Brazil Endangered

Patterns worth fixing in memory

  • Primates split by continent: lemurs live only on Madagascar; New World monkeys (tamarins, capuchins, howlers) live only in the Americas; apes live only in Africa and Asia.
  • Great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos are African; orangutans are the only great apes in Asia, found in Indonesia and Malaysia.
  • Large deer such as elk, moose and reindeer belong to the cold Northern Hemisphere. Tropical Asia has sambar and rusa deer instead.

Madagascar is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots: a place with very high endemism that has already lost most of its original habitat. This is why so many lemurs are on the IUCN Red List's threatened categories.

NCERT Concepts to Revise

  • Endemic species: Two of the three animals live naturally in only one country, so endemism is the key idea for matching animal to country.
  • Biodiversity hotspot: One country in the pairs is a classic biodiversity hotspot. Hotspots are where UPSC finds its unusual 'only found here' animals.
  • IUCN Red List: The Red List gives each of these animals a status, and UPSC often pairs habitat questions with status questions.
  • Threatened species: Two of the animals fall in the threatened categories, so it helps to know what 'threatened' covers.

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