Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cubs

[Kitsafari]

so i put those hours of waiting to good use. taking pictures of

 

an egret with a penthouse view

 

 

a green beeater trying to catch a bee...

 

 

bee-eater taking a pause

 

 

 

a lapwing keeping the bee-eater company

 

 

plains where we prayed and prayed that Maya would just walk through....

 

 

sambar family trying to hide

 

 

chittal family not bothering to hide

 

 

a crocodile bark tree

 

 

a beautiful tree - forgot to ask the name

 

 

a gnarled tree trunk

 

 

the palm where Maya marked ... yes i was that desperate to get that close to the famed tigress!

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

The biggest highlight for me in Tadoba was seeing the dhole. The wild dogs of India used to run in big packs but the rise of the tigers have reduced those packs to small groups of around 4. and the greatest surprise was that we saw them when we were not looking for them or least expected to see them.

 

we were waiting for Sonam in an area off the mini tarred highway near a waterhole. Just as the vehicle was about to leave, the forest guide turned behind us and shouted wild dogs!

 

and there was a magical spell that fell upon us. quietly but quickly we grabbed the cameras and snapped away as the pack of four were lying on the road. we had the dholes all to ourselves for all of 3-4 mins, until a vehicle came along. I guess the vehicle was coming on fairly quickly because the dholes upped and ran into the forest immediately.

 

It was a spellbinding 4 minutes of sheer delight but it seemed to last forever. DHOLES! that sighting made the Tadoba trip for me, personally.

 

the first moment we laid eyes on the dogs

 

'

 

 

 

(courtesy of H)

 

courtesy of H

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2016 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

and a rather shaky (typical of me) video...

 

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Ladies, look out for a program on (I think) Animal planet, called "The Pack" - it's all about a pack of dhole during denning season filmed in the Annamalais .......... It's not new - but, brilliant.

 

@@SafariChick - sorry just read your comment on Sambhar and Barasingha - We have plenty of Sambhar here in the South too - very common. Barashingha though don't exist here. We do have the Barking deer and the mouse deer

Edited January 3, 2016 by madaboutcheetah

[michael-ibk]

Wonderful Dhole sighting! Sorry Maya did not come out, but still a privilege to see the cubs. :-)

[elefromoz]

@Kitsafari@SafariChick, I feel your frustration, particularly when other guests leave the crowds behind and have a great sighting all to themselves, the Dhole images are lovely though.

[Kitsafari]

@@madaboutcheetah I've seen that series twice! Made me more determined to see the dholes. But I agree with you - a brilliant series.

[kittykat23uk]

Fantastic Dhole sighting!

[Atravelynn]

"and when the arrrrs or awwws or sounded out or sudden moves by the admiring crowds to stand up" So true. No need to continually crane your neck, just listen for the crowd reaction. And to think you were not there in the very busiest of times.

 

The chaos of the tiger sightings is in stark contrast to the photos that follow of that of the spider in the web and the young chital.

 

When I see those dhole, I wonder if some of them are the pups we saw, but just about all grown up.

 

I finally saw the moving photos. That is a great feature, whether you know how it is happening or not.

[SafariChick]

Your Dhole video is great, @@Kitsafari - and your and H's photos much better than mine from that day. I had some closer ones than I posted but kind of hazy and blurry so I won't bother posting. That one dhole had the injured foot which was sad, but it seemed to get around ok despite that. Yes, I agree the dhole were one of the best things on the whole trip. Stay tuned for more .... silly me, those two photos I posted were the ones I took with my iphone - just found the actual camera photos so I will post a few ...

Edited January 3, 2016 by SafariChick

[TonyQ]

Great to see the Dhole - beautiful animalsl

[SafariChick]

Before we saw the dhole that day, we saw this Sambar deer nibbling at the bark of a tree. Rajen said it was in order to get minerals, probably salt.

 

 

 

 

[SafariChick]

Now that I found my camera photos of the dhole, here are some of them - sorry for the Dhole overload and for the fuzziness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too bad this other car approached - we were just about to try inching a bit closer:

 

 

The dog with the hurt leg:

 

[janzin]

Great sighting of the Dholes! But rather distressing to see the insanity around Maya.

 

Could it have been possible to be the first one at the gate to at least get the best position? It looks like when you arrived there were already many cars. I would be willing to wait at the gate as long as necessary to be #1 or #2 (as we did in Ngorongoro....that's how we got our Serval there.)

[SafariChick]

@@janzin Interesting idea - and one Rajen had thought of. Svasara where we stayed was actually just about a 2-minute drive from the gate. He put into place a plan where the driver parked the gypsy we'd use on the drive into the park at the gate super early (at least one day he did so at 4 a.m.!) so we could be first in line - then he'd come pick us up in another vehicle he had use of and drop us off where we'd climb out and into the waiting car in line, as though we were royalty. Not sure this was really allowed but we were not called out on it! So we WOULD be one of the first cars, if not the first, from our gate. But there are six entry gates! And anyway, once we got there mostly we'd just see the blur of tiger fur back in the thicket. It was actually better sometimes to position ourselves farther back near the spot where Maya and her cubs would come out if/when they did - @@Kitsafari posted that photo of the palm which Rajen had noted Maya would always mark on and he'd noted that was always the way they'd come out when they did, not straight out from where they were hunkered down. It was also where I took that one photo of the cub.

[janzin]

Wow, crazy. I am not sure what I would do in that situation--wait or try to find some other tigers elsewhere in the park. Probably would move on...but as they say, a bird/tiger in the hand is worth two in the bush--so a tough choice!!

 

It must have been very frustrating, especially after seeing only one tiger in Kanha. It may only be worse next month when we are there, as that's more peak season, I think!

[SafariChick]

@@janzin yes it was frustrating, and we did alternate between hanging around to try to see the tiger in the hand (who was really in the bush!) vs. looking for other tigers or other things. But we did have a small success .... stay tuned as I can't get to it right this minute!

[SafariChick]

Before I get to the "small success" I alluded to, a few other sightings we had first:

 

We came across this Serpent Eagle sitting in a meadow:

 

 

 

After a short while, it put its head down into the grass and came up with something in its mouth - a snake!

 

 

 

 

On our way out of the park for lunch (the park closes for about three hours midday) we sometimes saw birds on the telephone wires just outside the park. This one is a bee-eater, I think it's the Little green bee-eater:

 

 

[SafariChick]

After lunch on this day, we went to check on Maya and the cubs - and found Maya sleeping in the usual spot. Rajen tried taking some photos through the thicket - here's one:

 

 

Nothing happening there, we went to look for other things and found this Barasingha really enjoying the water - I loved watching him lie down in the water and, at one point try to roll over on his side and back but his antlers got in his way!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2016 by SafariChick

[SafariChick]

Towards the end of the afternoon, we headed back over to Maya and the cubs. I think what happened was that we found all the vehicles and learned that Maya had actually gone out, presumably to go get some water, while we were gone - figures! We assumed that wherever she was, it wasn't visible since so many cars were still here - we figured people were waiting to see if she came back (or if the cubs went out?) I think we went over to check one of the watering holes that was nearby where she may have gone, but did not see her there. We did see an owl across the water and were taking some photos of it (mine didn't come out well) when suddenly Rajen saw Maya in the distance walking away from us and back towards her spot. So we zooomed away in the opposite direction to circle back to where we'd been. As we got back she was just beginning to walk into sight towards us. But there was a big discussion going on between Rajen, our driver, the guide assigned by the park, and a guy from what Rajen called "Vigilence." The Vigilence guys were sort of park police who were hanging around Maya and the cubs trying to make sure no one got too out of control or startled them, basically. They also are very strict about the time everyone must be out of the park, which was 6 p.m. It was now about 5:15 and it's true it took close to 45 minutes to drive from this spot to our gate. The Vigilence guy was telling our driver and guides that we had to leave RIGHT NOW. Maya was just coming into sight! Rajen later explained to us what he'd been saying, he was begging that we be allowed to stay for just a minute or two. He was saying "My clients have been trying for nine drives to see a tiger and haven't seen one!" (Not exactly true, but close!) The Vigilence guy was threatening to fine our driver and park guide and not allow them into the park for a week! Finally he said ok ok we could stay for a minute - craziness! We appreciated the dedication of our guides and driver in advocating for us!

 

Here are the few halfway decent photos I got, and a short, shaky video. Just like the tiger sighting at Kanha, it was after 5 p.m. so the light was terrible! You can see that Maya's paparazzi was in full force - there were even vehicles following behind Maya in addition to the many, many vehicles that were clustered around where we were waiting. There were even buses full of tourists that were threatening to get in our line of sight. Just crazy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a very short, very shaky video - at the end of it, you can hear me saying "Why are we moving?" ha ha - the whole discussion with Vigilence not yet been explained to us and I didn't realize we were being told we had to leave!

 

 

This whole sighting was about 1-2 minutes.

 

So off we hurried towards the gate, trying to make sure no one was banned from the park or fined! But there was one more surprise waiting for us on our way out ....

Edited January 4, 2016 by SafariChick

[kittykat23uk]

OMG! How frustrating that you had to leave just when Maya was showing well!

[Kitsafari]

Great sighting of the Dholes! But rather distressing to see the insanity around Maya.

 

Could it have been possible to be the first one at the gate to at least get the best position? It looks like when you arrived there were already many cars. I would be willing to wait at the gate as long as necessary to be #1 or #2 (as we did in Ngorongoro....that's how we got our Serval there.)

 

@@janzin, as safarichick mentioned, Rajan had us first in line every morning in Tadoba and that's only because he would get up much earlier to drive the car to the front of the gate. On our last morning drive on a Sunday, poor Rajan drove the vehicle at 4am (!) to ensure we were first in line as the crowds were expected to be really early.

 

I have to give credit to @@michael-ibk and @@Atravelynn who gave us the idea. When I first broached the subject to Rajan, he was very hesitant about parking the car first in line without the guests (us) in it. He was concerned that the park officials would tick him off. But he was willing to try it, and bless him, he successfully made the attempts despite fears of being scolded by the park officials. I think if other guests had complained, he would have gotten into trouble.

[janzin]

Indeed how frustrating to have to leave just as you had a good view, after all that waiting! But it sounds like Rajan did all he could. And it IS good that the park police are being strict about the rules, for the sake of the wildlife. Still...another minute or two wouldn't have hurt Anyway at least you got to see her in full magnificence!

 

I would be willing to wait in the vehicle myself at 4 a.m. if that's what it took, although obviously I'd prefer not to, LOL. It must have been pretty frigid at that time! Oh well, who knows what the situation will be in February. Chances are that Maya may be more "on the move" and not just hanging around in one spot so this type of "stake-out" may not be warranted. I eagerly am awaiting for the next installment...

[michael-ibk]

About the line thing - it was actually Rajan who suggested that to us, not the other way around. We just walked from the lodge to the gate, so it was not very obvious that he had an empty car there parked for us. But who knows, somebody might have reprimanded him for doing that for us.

 

Having to leave Maya must have been truly infuriating, that´s almost Tantalus-like!

Edited January 4, 2016 by michael-ibk

[Kitsafari]

@@michael-ibk i suspect it might have otherwise he wouldn't have been so hesitant when I suggested it.