[Leica] A Tiger Story

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Just a tiger story as it played out in Ranthambhore last month. A lot
of the shots were taken at long distance, through trees, grass, twigs
and leaves and then cropped - and the first one has been included for
the story's sake. The lighting for the morning shots was also quite
difficult - shooting into the sun, with a water body reflecting
everything. Anyway, here goes, hope you enjoy the tale:

Our first sighting was the female T22, the mother of T24:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0719-Edit.jpg.html

Our next sighting, after a few minutes, was the male T24, the dominant
male of the southern end of Ranthambhore, dragging a half eaten
carcass through the trees, periodically stopping to eat a morsel:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0762.jpg.html

When he reached a clearing, it was apparent that the carcass was that
of a young Nilgai, a large antelope. It was also getting apparent that
T24 had stolen the kill from his mother T22, and they were not
together for mating (tigers in Ranthambhore are notoriously
incestuous):

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0799.jpg.html

It was clear that he was making for Phoota Kot, a water body close by:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0848.jpg.html

He dragged the carcass into the water, and entered with quite a splash:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0857.jpg.html

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0864.jpg.html

He gave us a snarl or two as a general warning:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0878.jpg.html

He then stashed his scavenged kill in the water. Tigers do this both
to slow down the decomposition of the meat, and to easier defend it
against other tigers.:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_0887.jpg.html

After this, his mother also came to the water, probably to try and see
if she could get something out of her son - no such luck - his ears
pinned back, hair bristling, growling, he saw her off in no time.
Unfortunately this encounter was half hidden from our position, and I
got no shots of it.

We came back in the afternoon, and he was there, cooling off and
guarding the carcass. The ears and the body of the nilgai is visible,
floating in the water, at the top right:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_1090.jpg.html

A last shot - the wind acted up, and a thunderstorm was imminent, and
he obviously smelt something!:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Ranthambhore_001/April2013/Ranthambhore_20130418_1143.jpg.html

Please see LARGE

Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome.

Cheers
Jayanand