Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cubs

[Kitsafari]

@@Tom Kellie the panthera tigris is the largest cat in the world. the male tiger can grow up to 260kgs while the male lion will weigh as much as 235kg. the tiger moves as sleekly and smoothly as the lions. it certainly commands attention when it walks!

 

according to Panthera.org, there are only 3200 tigers left in the world, while there are only 20,000 lions left. Tigers are considered as Endangered while Lions are considered as vulnerable. Sumatran and Malayan tigers are critically endangered.

[Tom Kellie]

~ @@SafariChick

 

I'm also seeing the moving tiger image in @@Kitsafari's post.

No idea how that was accomplished, as I've never encountered it before, in or out of Safaritalk.

Above those super-cute owls, that sunrise image is SPECTACULAR!

Framable to remind one of nature's serenity.

BTW: Surprised to know that you're a native New Yorker!

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

@@Tom Kellie the panthera tigris is the largest cat in the world. the male tiger can grow up to 260kgs while the male lion will weigh as much as 235kg. the tiger moves as sleekly and smoothly as the lions. it certainly commands attention when it walks!

 

according to Panthera.org, there are only 3200 tigers left in the world, while there are only 20,000 lions left. Tigers are considered as Endangered while Lions are considered as vulnerable. Sumatran and Malayan tigers are critically endangered.

 

~ @@Kitsafari

 

WOW! They ARE larger, as your images show.

Thank you for the helpful comparison.

So few remaining tigers...tragic.

Hence I'm so glad that you did, in fact, see them.

That's a privilege, adding a peacock plume to your Pith!

Tom K.

[TonyQ]

@@SafariChick

Beautiful pictures of the spotted deer.

We have always enjoyed that "veggie" is seen as a normal choice in India - and that restaurants are labelled as non-veg (where this would be seen as the norm at home). The green dot and red dot is a good system.

[Kitsafari]

@@SafariChick @@Tom Kellie - i have to be honest - i really don't know how those moving pictures within a picture came about. It happened with my botswana trip and it happened with the south luangwa photos. it was when I transferred the photos to picasa that it happened.

[Kitsafari]

@@SafariChick - lovely set of pictures! and that chittal stag looks cool.

 

I'll supplement her photos with different perspectives

 

our first sunrise in Kanha...

 

 

 

The mist would greet us every morning, clinging heavily onto the land and defying the rising orb of the sun until it could no more.

@@SafariChick captured the beautiful owls. you wouldn't realise how incredibly small they are until you see them in perspective - can you spot them?

Enjoying the first rays of the sun, celebrating another day of life

\

spot the odd one?

to help you spot better...

Edited December 30, 2015 by Kitsafari

[elefromoz]

How the heck did I miss the did the antler arch in Kanha, not that it matters, it's just so big.Must have been looking elsewhere.I have seen the one in Jackson, Wyoming being one of the most beautiful places in the world I should add.Nice spotted deer, I thought them lovely animals, someone who'll remain nameless told me not to waste my camera battery on them! Bit harsh.Those little owls (Scops if I recall) are famous, we all have a photo of them.I love the misty mornings in Kanha.

[Kitsafari]

@@elefromoz you are right - they are scops owls, i forgot to jot down the name on my little notebook.

[madaboutcheetah]

@@Kitsafari - stunning photos. That's the Sal forest i was talking about the other day

 

The stunning maroon colors come out when the sunlight hits it?

[kittykat23uk]

I took a similar image of scops owls at Kanha in 2009:

 

Collared scops owls by Jo Dale, on Flickr

[TonyQ]

@@Kitsafari

Those are beautiful early morning shots - especially with the mist (I remember some excellent shots you took at Danum Valley with the mist and trees!)

The deer are lovely - and the back-lit langurs excellent.

[michael-ibk]

Great start to your report, had been looking forward to it very much.

 

Wow, you certainly did not have an easy start, you must have been pretty wasted after your flight to Nagpur and the drive to Kanha. Good that Abhishek was watching TV and was able to re-route you. Delhi airport ist ... interesting, isn´t it? We had the unstamped hand luggage problem (which we didn´t know about), both Lynn and AndMic were sent back.

 

And yes, traffic really is murder in India. On our first trip our driver told us you need three things to survive it:

1.) Good brakes

2.) Good horn

and ...

3.) Good luck

:-)

 

But I´m sure that sighting of two Tigers on your first drive made you forget about the exhausting travel. Big Male is a magnificent tiger, we saw him in Kanha, too. Any idea which female that was? It may be harder to see them in winter, but I think they look even more beautiful against all the green.

 

Love the shots with misty Kanha in the morning, it´s probably my favourite park landscape-wise. Especially like the sunrise with mist and the Sambar doe in the creek, Safarichick, and that third morning pic, Kit.

 

Looking forward to more!

 

 

[SafariChick]

@@michael-ibk ha ha your driver summed it up nicely! and yes, all the airports actually are interesting :-) Yes, we were pretty wiped out after that long day of flying/driving to Kanha but the tiger sightings were very restorative :-) No, we don't know who the female tiger was. Yes, I remember you saw Big Male also, so when Rajen told us it was he, I thought of you and @@AndMic and @@Atravelynn. He is quite the impressive specimen!

[SafariChick]

Here are some jackals - we saw quite a few of them, often near the breakfast/rest stop:

 

 

 

 

and a Barasingha in the water - I like this photo, it seems a bit impressionistic almost like a painting to me:

 

[elefromoz]

@@SafariChick, the second Jackal photo is lovely, the coat looks so healthy, could be someone's pet waiting for their owner to return. Very nice Barasingha in the water. It is possible to capture some lovely images in Kahna it's just so scenic.

[Atravelynn]

Your title is brilliant. I had to laugh: "I am not planning to make this the typical day by day, drive by drive trip report. I know people say that and then they do anyway."

 

"Abhishek from WWI, an energetic and always smiling fellow" - perfect description of him!

 

"a herd of wild boar ran onto the runway. The plane hit one or more boars, sustaining damage and skidding off the runway!" The things that don't happen to you. Unbelievable! Sad about 7 wild boars, though.

 

"Abhishek told us he had luckily seen a report of the incident while his wife was flipping tv channels just before he went to bed and had ended up staying up all night to rearrange things for us!" This, too is Abhishek. The man does not sleep, I swear. Right here is an advantage of going with a responsible company that cares about its clients. Who knows how long it would have taken you to get to Kanha without this alternate plan being put into place?

 

I bet you were glad when that Peacock Peeking finally appeared. What a whirlwind of a start.

 

I can just hear Rajen's tiger call. That is actually a very lovely first photo of the obscured female. And then Big Male! Between lack of sleep and a combo of 2 tigers right off the bat, no wonder you were a little delirious.

 

"but the important thing to note when going through any airports in India - ensure that each and every piece of hand carry luggage or handbag has a tag. the tags are given after the X ray machines and have to be stamped by security officials before you board the flight. if you have no tag, you are sent right back to the x-ray machines and do the process all over again." Is this familiar @@AndMic? The two of us were running all over the airport due to missing tags that we did not know we were supposed to have.

 

 

"Rajen grabbing my camera gleefully and taking a lot of photos on burst mode - not that I am complaining, he does take great photos!!)" He has a great eye and sense of what the animals are about to do. I thought he might be very knowledgeable about camera settings and such when I saw his results. But no, he just pushes the shutter, using whatever settings you have. I also had a camera just for him.

 

Up to page 1

[Kitsafari]

@@Kitsafari - stunning photos. That's the Sal forest i was talking about the other day

 

The stunning maroon colors come out when the sunlight hits it?

@@madaboutcheetah thanks! the maroon colours were just above the horizon as the sun rose and peeked out from behind some clouds. the pictures are as they are -unedited. i thought the sunrises and sunsets were just as pleasing as they were in Africa - the only problem was trying to get a good clear shot without any twigs, trees or leaves or bushes! but the flora lent an interesting touch to the photos.

 

yes you were right - it's the Sal forest. the Sal trees - well spread out in Kanha forests - were slender, tall and magnificent looking. I recall that was the first thing the forest guide told us - and we were given some background information on it. it's a valuable timber.

[Kitsafari]

@@TonyQ thank you. I do love misty mornings. they lend a strong sense of mystery to the whole ambiance, and leaves you wondering what the forests have in store for you next.

[Kitsafari]

@@michael-ibk agree with safarichick - an excellent summary of traffic in India!

 

the Delhi airport staff was kinder to me - my handbag did not get a tag so the lady told me to stuff that into my hand luggage which was tagged.

 

Rajan couldn't tell which female tiger it was, but he reckoned it was actually watching the Big Male crossing the area and was alarmed by his presence.

[SafariChick]

Some more moments from Kanha:

 

Barasingha in the mist with the added adornment of grasses on his antlers. I may have dreamed it but did Rajen say this was something done on purpose? Something to do with the rut and appearing more fearsome to opponents? Or am I crazy @@Kitsafari?

 

 

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5668/23967796542_2ba610c158_c.jpg[/img

 

@@Kitsafari the photographer at work

 

 

Parakeets??

 

 

A better peacock shot, with this one standing still:

 

 

Contemplative Langur (I love the human-like poses they seem to strike):

 

 

Mother and child:

 

 

Barasinghas sparring:

 

 

Sunset:

 

[madaboutcheetah]

@@SafariChick - I love that first photo - Quintessential winter setting in Central India.

[Kitsafari]

ahhh Jane snared a pic of me! thank you. notice the thick down coat over a woollen cardigan and the thermal hat with the gloves in my pockets to take a picture. it was burrrry cold.

 

I don't recall Rajan mentioning about the grass on the swamp deer or barasingha but I did remember in Tadoba he mentioned about the sambar stag rubbing against trees and stabbing the branches in a show of strength to scare off the younger stag. the barasingha in the mist was a iconic picture of Indian winter mornings. Every morning we would pass that waterhole as we entered from the Mukki gate and there was always one or two barasingha males in the swamps busily chomping the fresh vegs.

 

@@michael-ibk had a good background piece on the barasingha (Rucervus Duvaucelii). If I can recall what Rajan said, they are able to keep their heads under water for a short while to get to the food underwater. What we saw in Kanha are the hard ground barasingha. For Kanha to successfully reproduce the almost extinct antelopes in the park, and being able to relocate some to Satpura to start a new herd is testimony to the park's commitment to ecology and wildlife.

 

swamp deer in the late afternoon hours:

 

 

a female barasingha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sharing a pond with egrets

 

 

 

a barasingha male strolls among its smaller neighbours, the chittal with the line of forest as a beautiful backdrop

 

barasingha greeting us every morning

[Kitsafari]

@@SafariChick those are the Alexandrine parakeets - they look like the rose-ringed parakeet but are larger and have a pink patch on their wings. we get the latter flying through Singapore during the migration season. interesting tidbit about the Alexandrine parakeets - apparently ALexander the Great exported these Alexandrine birds from India into Europe and the Meditteranian region

 

 

 

[kittykat23uk]

Love the backlit Langaur shot!

[Kitsafari]

How the heck did I miss the did the antler arch in Kanha, not that it matters, it's just so big.Must have been looking elsewhere.I have seen the one in Jackson, Wyoming being one of the most beautiful places in the world I should add.Nice spotted deer, I thought them lovely animals, someone who'll remain nameless told me not to waste my camera battery on them! Bit harsh.Those little owls (Scops if I recall) are famous, we all have a photo of them.I love the misty mornings in Kanha.

 

@@elefromoz - also forgot to mention - the beautiful antler arch was at the breakfast place in central kanha zone. we also visited a handful of museums there, with very interesting and informative stuff in there.

 

 

the "eating hall" also sells breakfast items over the counter. but we had our own breakfast - really yummy pakoras (we finish the entire box in seconds...ok i exaggerate, but we were almost politely fighting over it. hard boiled egg, fruit, muffins and some sandwich, great coffee to round it all up. the cold mornings made us very very hungry.

 

 

 

one of the many information boards in the museums.