[Subrat Seet]

Oh boy. What a moment. Last two years, many safaris in various jungle but never experienced the tiger with a kill. Superb luck and brilliant capture. I always avoid Ranthambore because of the sharing gypsy. Howver, finally going to Ranthambore with two more friends and booked the whole gypsy. Your thread has give lots of expectation from Ranthambore. Keeping finger crossed.
Thank you for sharing the brilliant wildlife picture.
Subrat

[gd1418]

Thank you. That goes without saying.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

@GD: Thanks for this. Just one word for the pics: M-A-G-I-C-A-L. It's raining tigers for you in the heat of the summer!

I presume you have retained their contact info.

Aankh ke andhe, naam nayansukh. Post dubaraa dhang se dekhiye. My comment ke oopar jawab likhta hoon. Kappor ka jawab uske comment ke oopar hai.

IIM mein padhayi karne se intelligent nahi ho jaate...

Originally Posted by phamilyman

hey the bhagwan. itne khush ho gaye ho ki naam bhi ulte kar diye.

how does nkapoor become hitanshu?

Thank you Subrat. Will look forward to you experience.

Originally Posted by Subrat Seet

Oh boy. What a moment. Last two years, many safaris in various jungle but never experienced the tiger with a kill. Superb luck and brilliant capture. I always avoid Ranthambore because of the sharing gypsy. Howver, finally going to Ranthambore with two more friends and booked the whole gypsy. Your thread has give lots of expectation from Ranthambore. Keeping finger crossed.
Thank you for sharing the brilliant wildlife picture.
Subrat

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by gd1418

Aankh ke andhe, naam nayansukh. Post dubaraa dhang se dekhiye. My comment ke oopar jawab likhta hoon. Kappor ka jawab uske comment ke oopar hai.

damn. multi tasking fail by me.

That's what happens when you put up a thread with such awesome pictures. totally mesmerized readers

[sach.sri]

awesome hai sir... so now that you have finally sighted a leopard in the wild - i guess this will also turn like your luck with tigers, once you spotted them in Sariska, you now keep on spotting them everywhere

Great shots....

[white-rabbit]

Great shots!!Your clicks of leopard made me remember about the close encounter I had with a wild leopard.I was driving my way from home town to Bangalore,was passing through Bandipur national forest,Karnataka around 7:30 pm.Suddenly a leopard jumped infront of the car,turned his head and looked at the car and crossed the road and disappeared.I was shocked and surprised!!

May be he thought that a white-rabbit may not even make a good dinner for him.

[Avid trekker]

@GD -
AWESOME pictures and gripping narration. 5 star thread.
Will this park be open in first week of July?

[gd1418]

Thank you so very much. The park closes on 1st july for monsoons and reopens on 1st October. This is the schedule for most parks in India barring TATR & the Jhirna sector in Corbett.

Originally Posted by Avid trekker

@GD -
AWESOME pictures and gripping narration. 5 star thread.
Will this park be open in first week of July?

[gd1418]

T 19 or "unnees" as the locals call her had given birth to three cubs last year in the Naal Ghati area under Zone 3. But as her sister T 17 (sundari or Sattrah) used to patrol the entire park area, feeling unsafe for her cubs T 19 moved to Lahpur area of the forest and made her new home. This area is out of bounds for the tourists.

Occasionally she was seen in the Mandoop area. The Forest Department started filling this water hole (known as Kachha Chatta) in the summer and since then this family has been regularly found here.

And this is where Mohan Singh took us. Out of the three cubs of T 19, two are males and one is a female. One male & female cub stay with the mother while the other bolder male cub is apparently very independent and can be seen alone at times and the guides here tell me that he also goes with his father, T28, as he patrols his territory.

We reached Kachha Chatta and parked near the waterhole. The water tanker had filled it in the morning and fresh pug-marks of the cubs & the mother were to be seen coming till the water hole and returning back. This meant they had come to drink water and might return again.

Mohan Singh asked us if we were ready to wait and we all replied in affirmative. There was a lot of avian activity going on. Jungle blabbers, Treepies, Black drongos, Robins etc., were swooping down, drinking water and bathing in it.

No sign of any predator. That place was also devoid of any deer or Langurs. So even if the predator was nearby, no alarm calls would come.

Then I saw this female Grey Francolin (teeter) with her brood of chicks near the waterhole. Adorable three little chicks.

Grey Francolin with chicks There are two chicks here - spot them



Spot the three chicks Mama teeter turns around to see if the other two brats are following or not



Almost an hour & fifteen minutes had passed waiting at this waterhole. A few jeeps came our way, saw the pug-marks, waited for a short while and then left. We were all alone. The jeep was parked on a side of the trail and we were facing the waterhole. There was a rustle in the bushes from the back. We all turned our head to see and there was this lone adult female Sambhar treading very cautiously. Apparently wanted to come for a drink. Our jeep was right in the middle of her approach.

Mohan Singh moved the jeep away and parked so that she could now go to the waterhole.

Here I learnt a lesson in survival in the jungle. The Sambhar was very cautious. She was smelling the air and generally looking at a direction. Mohan Singh said - "Isko Tiger ki smell aa rahi hai. Tiger ke jaane ke baad bhi do-teen ghante tak uski smell hoti hai (She is getting the scent of the Tiger. The scent of the Tiger remains for 2-3 hours even after the Tiger is gone)".

Waiting, waiting & waiting. Even though we had moved out of the Sambhar's way, it was not approaching the water. This was intriguing. Our one eye was on the Sambhar and the other in the thick growth ahead. I saw the Sambhar changing track and from behind the jeep came to an open patch on to our left and started sniffing and looking at one direction. When we followed her gaze we couldn't see anything even with our big lenses. What was she seeing or sensing?

Then she lifted her tail and stomped on the ground. Stomping is a warning sign to the herd to be ready to flee. Only here there was no herd. The Sambhar stomped again. Something was wrong. I lifted my 300mm lens, manually focussed generally in the area where she was staring and found nothing. Mohan Singh said - "dar jaane se bhi aise karte hain (they behave like this if scared)".

The Sambhar stomped again and this time let out a loud "ponk". This was an alarm call. It is said that the Sambhar will call only if it has a sighting. Then an another alarm call followed by one more.

Mohan Singh & Rajender simultaneously said - "Unnees ka male cub (19's male cub)". And true to the last word we saw this 15 month old cub in the thicket ahead. A decent picture couldn't be taken as it was quite dense. This photograph is only a record shot. The clock showed 18:47. We had waited for almost two hours on Mohan Singh's bidding. How right he & his instinct was.

T 19's male cub



In fifteen minutes we had to be out of the forest to avoid penalisation. The male cub did not show any inclination to come to the waterhole.

We left and just made it to the gate in time. It was a very fulfilling day. Returned to room, generously tipped Mohan Singh & Rajender, noted down their contact numbers and retired for the day.

What would the next day have in store for us? Tomorrow was to be our last day. We were scheduled to leave on 27th after doing the the 6th safari in the morning. I phoned Guddu and told him to extend my stay by a day. This meant I would do two more safaris. In total 8 safaris. The score till now - 4 out of 5. 80%

to be continued.../-

[nkrishnap]

Fantastic. Leopard kill, tiger kill, wildboar enjoying the kill, your luck was extremely good to have all these in one trip.

8 Safaris @ 80% has a lots more in store. Please bring it on.

A well deserved 5 Stars to the thread

[llamrei]

Captivating report. Sighting of leopard is indeed lucky. Eaxcellent images.

[gd1418]

27th May, 2012

The Subramanians and I decided not to press for a particular zone today and take what ever randomly was allotted. We did so because today was a Sunday and apart from the regular 40 tourist jeeps + canters, 20 more jeeps of VIPs would be allowed. Most of them would come from Jaipur and nearby places. For them there was no zone restriction and also could come out 30 minutes later than the scheduled exit time.

As usual we were ready by 5:40. There was a slight haze on the horizon. Captured this Sunrise.

Sunrise



As luck would have it we were allotted Zone 3 again. We were delighted to get this. Today the jeep came at 6 and by 6:15 we were on our way to Zone 3. After yesterday evening's experience we decided to head straight to Kachha Chatta waterhole (Mandoop) while circling Rajbagh for signs of T 17. Reached the waterhole and already saw two jeeps parked there. Was something there?

Sure enough as we inched forward and looked for a decent parking place, saw T 19 and her two grown cubs (male & female) resting in shade near the waterhole.

Sleepy, sleepy



Found a place from where the waterhole was in our direct line of sight and waited. Sooner or later one of them or all of them would come to drink water or cool themselves. Some more vehicles joined us and then a canter came full of noisy tourists. Inspite of being told to maintain silence they were noisier than the Babblers.

Disturbed by this commotion the male cub got up, snuggled unto his mother and then stepped into the water and sat down looking at us, drinking water and at times dozing off.

15 month old Male cub of T 19









Reflection







All this while the big cameras were going "rat-a-tat-a-tat". What annoyed me was the usage of the P&S cameras. Their users didn't know how to shut off the flash. So all these P&S cameras were flashing off. There was no one to stop them.

After a while T 19 got up and walked towards the water. While her male cub simply stepped into the water straightaway, she gingerly eased herself into the water in reverse.

T 19 (Tigress)









Soon after her female cub too followed and sat in the water next to her brother. The show went on & on. Let the pictures speak.

15 month old Female cub of T 19



Brother & Sister



Mother, Son & daughter



Daughter leaving



Sleeping, Peeping & Looking



Something has attracted the daughter's attention



Mother & Son in B&W

[gd1418]

Mother & Son





The noisy crowd



The crowd had increased and this news reached the CF, Mr. Gupta. He came and immediately got into action. He asked the drivers to leave if their guests had seen and threatened them with a ban for 5 days. All this bellowing disturbed the Cats thoroughly and they got up one-by-one and moved into the deeper area of the forest, away from the prying eyes. More than the CF's threat, the moving away of the Cats worked and the crowd dispersed. We left and went again towards the Rajabgh area hoping to get some news about T 17.

Waited for a while near the water and captured a small croc and a few avians.

Crocodile sunbathing



Red wattled Lapwing





Egrets in flight



Honey Buzzard



The exit time was approaching and slowly we left the forest totally satisfied with the outing.

Reached our room and rested. Two more safaris were left. The score - 5 out of 6.

to be continued.../-

[mallumowgli]

Simply amazing narrative sir. Thanks for taking the time to take us through in real time!! As for the photos, as Guderian said, I could almost smell the Tigers

[sach.sri]

wah wah - great pics... liked this one the best

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...roken-6690.jpg

give us more.......

[Subrat Seet]

Superb sharp pictures. Amazing capture. Hope you have some full pictures of the tigers.

Thanks for sharing.
Subrat