No wonder it is said
#KabiniNeverDisappoints. It would be an understatement in my case, especially after last weekend's visit. We did four safaris and we had a sighting in every one of them. Two safaris had multiple sightings. What more can one ask for? The forest is dry, dry, dry...which may be why the cats are so visible. The sightings notice board at the reception of Jungle Lodges listed a tiger or a leopard in almost every safari for the whole of last week. I heard that it has been more or less the same this week too.
The cats and all the other denizens of the forest are moving around in search of water, crossing territories, getting into fights with each other, even coming out of the forest in one case where the tigress was shot with multiple tranquilizer darts by an over zealous forest official, leading to its death. The saddest part of that incident is that the tigress had three six month old cubs who would not be able to fend for themselves and would have subsequently died. So the incident has actually killed four tigers and not just one. The forest department has made arrangements inside the forest with bore wells supplying water to some ponds, to cope with the severe drought. Let's all hope and pray that the April showers are on time and as regular as usual.
Anyway, on to the photos. Along with my trusted Nikon D7200, this time I was carrying the superlative Nikkor 200-400 f/4 lens. This baby is sharp. No wonder it costs more than 5,50,000! Yes, that is Five Lakhs Fifty Thousand! One can buy a car or a superbike instead. Obviously I had hired it for the weekend. It is very heavy and not easy to handhold for any length of time. A beanbag or some other form of lens rest is definitely advised.
Let me start with a mundane Bonnet Macaque (the common monkey) outside my room in JLR. You can see what I mean by the lens being sharp. Each hair on this lady is distinct and the reflection in her eyes are crystal clear.
First safari, first sighting. A tigress was well hidden behind the dry twigs of lantana, when our driver stopped and pointed. Out came the cameras.
First safari, second sighting. Its mate was sitting on the other side of the tracks, wanting to cross the road. Probably got disturbed by the vehicles and decided to stay put. We waited for a long time but he didn't want to come out in the open.
A tusker decides to cross the winding road instead.
Of course, this was not in the same spot, it was actually the next day morning.
Second safari, first sighting. There were a lot of alarm calls from Spotted Deer and Langurs, which meant a cat was on the move. We tracked the calls and were rewarded with this guy walking across us. He never turned his face to look at us, just kept going.
Second safari, second sighting. Actually the same leopard but about half an hour later. Our driver and naturalist both decided to drive around to the river bank where they were sure he was going to come out. You should have heard the alarm calls going off! He finally decided to appear and we were perfectly positioned.
We went back a satisfied lot, high fiving each other. We had no idea that our luck would continue in the evening too!
Third safari, only sighting. Look at that, I said "only" sighting! We are never satisfied, are we? About half way into the safari, we spotted a sub-adult tigress lazily stretching in the open, just beside the tracks. The only problem was that the background was full of distractions, with dry lantana twigs. The foreground too was dry grass. It would have been awesome if this same scene had happened post monsoon, when the forest is almost eye hurtingly green. An orange body against a green background is about the most photogenic it can get. As I said, we are never a satisfied lot!
Sighting my foot! Her left rear foot actually.
A lazy look that says "Who goes there?"
An unusual angle, she seems to be saying "Go away, leave me alone..."
Look at the mighty forepaw! And she is not even full grown. A teenager in tiger terms. A swipe from those paws can easily crush the skull of a cow, let alone a human being.
A classic relaxed profile shot. Looking away in the distance, where a couple of langurs were frolicking.
"You guys still here?" Ain't she a beauty?
"OK, I've had enough. See you some other time..." she says and disappears into the bushes.
We returned to JLR sated and grateful. We still had another safari to go and there were bets over beer later in the evening as to whether we would see anything in the final jaunt. I was one of those who said "Nobody can be that lucky" but I was proved wrong!
Fourth safari, first sighting A tigress behind the bushes, probably the same one as the previous day, but this one was only a fleeting glimpse. She saw us and quickly vanished. I had major problems getting the lens to focus on her in the very short time I had available, mere seconds. By the time I switched to manual, she was gone. So this is just a record shot. Also distracting me were a group a very PYTs in another van next to us, scantily clad and showing a lot of leg. I was not able to make a rational decision about where to look.
We had a good opportunity to shoot an Indian Roller (Karnataka's state bird). Usually these birds sit still for a long time, but this one was very active, flying down to the ground and returning to the same perch again and again. It caught a giant spider for breakfast and gave us some good opportunities to capture it in flight. This is where the slower FPS of the D7200 limits me. I wasn't able to capture the wings stretched out fully, as I wanted to.
Fourth safari, second sighting Someone in another van had spotted a leopard on a tree and called our driver. The connectivity inside the forest is a bit of hit and miss, but this time the call came through and we rushed to the spot. He was still there and not very active. Feeling too lazy to get up, probably, it was a Sunday after all!
Thus ended one of the most amazing weekends in Kabini that I've ever had in all my visits there. I don't think I'll have this many sightings over one visit again, but who knows? Sometimes we return without seeing anything, sometimes like this.
#KabiniNeverDisappoints. Until next time, ciao and take care!