The park protects the wildlife of Karnataka. The important predators and carnivores in Nagarhole National Park are the Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, dhole , sloth bear and the striped hyena. The herbivores are chital, sambar deer, barking deer, four-horned antelope gaur, wild boar and Indian elephant. Nagarhole National Park provides an opportunity to see some of the southern population of gaur (jungle bison). Also, this park in Karnataka is a good place to see elephants in the luxuriant forests and bamboo thickets which they most enjoy. Their total population in southern India is now about 6500, nearly all living in the area where Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala adjoin in the shadow of the Western Ghats. Other mammals includes the gray langur, bonnet macaque, jungle cat, leopard cat, slender loris, small Indian civet and Asian palm civet, Indian brown mongoose and stripe-necked mongoose, European otter, Indian giant flying squirrel, Indian giant squirrel, porcupine, golden jackal, chevrotain, hare and Indian pangolin. Over 250 species of birds are found at Nagarhole National Park. Besides the enormous variety of woodland birds, there are large congregations of waterfowl in the Kabini river. Birds range from blue-bearded bee-eater, scarlet minivet and Malabar whistling thrush to the more common ospreys, herons and ducks.