Sumer is a hamlet situated at the edge of Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary. About a kilometre from the village there are high hills covered with thick forests running east to west.

The remaining three sides of the village are plains mostly converted into agricultural fields. I had visited this place during summers (I usually visit this place for observation and study of fauna) of 1994.

I stayed there from 29^th May to 6^th May on that visit. The place was teeming with wild animals especially wild boars and blue bulls. Pugmarks of five leopards, two males and three females, were a regular feature at the four waterholes situated high in the adjoining hills.

Due to excessive heat most of the water pools in the nullahs of the hills had dried up. On 1^st June 1994, I took up my position at around 6.30pm in a hide near awaterhole. This water hole was situated in a nullah and the place was in a secluded corner of the jungle, quite high in the hills. Three people from Sumer village who had accompanied me up to the water hole left and took up their position about 150m downstream from me at another waterhole.

At quarter to nine in the evening I heard a strange grunt approximately 50m away from a hill slope in front of me. Immediately it was answered by another grunt, a little bit feeble in resonance, about 200m to my right. I was puzzled by these sounds. I had never heard such grunt prior to this and was unable to decipher the source. The grunts were repeated every half a minute or so and the animals making the sound drew nearer and nearer. After a lapse of 15 minutes, the grunts died down.

Close to 11pm I left the waterhole and rejoined my companions. I enquired about the grunts. They told me that it was the mating call of blue bulls. The male was calling from my direction and the female from downstream. The pair quenched its thirst from the waterhole where my companions were sitting. They were familiar with the mating call of blue bulls.

I have encountered thousands of blue bulls but never heard such a typical mating call.

Due to severe heat and scarcity of fodder, these animals have retreated into dense forests on steep hill slopes. The favoured habitat of blue bull is comparatively open, flat or undulating country. Owing to poor visibility and constant fear of leopards, the blue bulls remain scattered in this inhospitable environment. So they have adopted this type of communication for courtship and mating.