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National Geographic Land of the Tiger
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December. |
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It is winter in Kanha National Park |
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These very same grasslands and |
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for Rudyard Kipling's immortal |
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The spirit of wild India that |
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Kanha National Park is |
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Sixty years ago its 363 square miles |
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Since then these forests have been |
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But Kanha has been preserved |
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The tiger still roars here, |
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Just before dawn |
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Now, a few hours later, |
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to hide it |
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Like all of his kind he is solitary |
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a lone hunter who lives by stealth. |
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The night has been cold. |
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The gray langur monkeys, |
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rest and groom each other |
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winter is the season of birth |
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This newborn, only a few hours old, |
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The new member of the troop is passed |
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as many as ten times in half an hour. |
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It is treated with great curiosity |
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This "aunt" behavior, as it is called, |
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inducts the infant into the troop, |
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The monsoon rains ceased |
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But along the streams the vegetation |
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Grass-shrouded water holes are |
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from which the tiger tries |
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Despite his power and camouflage |
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the tiger often fails to make a kill. |
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Only about one hunt in twenty |
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In mid-January, when winter |
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the rut of the barasingha |
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During this season of courtship |
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stages bugle and fight |
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to establish who among them |
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A tigress watches the combat |
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where she is hiding newborn cubs. |
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Helpless young with great fierceness |
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It will be some weeks before she will |
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For the most part, Kanha's tigers |
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concealed by the dense undergrowth |
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But in Ranthambhor National Park |
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the habitat is drier and more open. |
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In February, early spring in India, |
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Ranthambhor's 64 square miles |
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The monsoon rains are only |
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But cradled in the hills is |
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and it is because of this permanent |
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Unlike pristine Kanha, |
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Ranthambhor has a long history |
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dating back to the 11th century. |
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Dominating the reserve |
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Now deserted by man, the fort |
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Centuries ago it was the focal point |
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Battles raged back and forth |
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In more recent times villages thrived |
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But their inhabitants have also gone. |
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They were encouraged to settle |
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Monuments to forgotten dramas |
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This stone marks the spot where |
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where she burned herself alive |
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Only the ruins remain. |
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Man has moved out of Ranthambhor after |
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and returned it to the wildlife. |
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On this cool spring morning it is not |
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but a tigress on the lookout for sambar, |
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When the sambar lie down to chew |
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The tigress waits patiently. |
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The deer's senses of smell |
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but their vision is only moderate. |
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As long as he tigress moves |
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or remains motionless |
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she cannot be been by them, |
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even when only 30 or 40 feet away. |
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Her camouflage hides her completely. |
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The wind shifts and |
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The hunt is over. |
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A tigress stakes her claim to |
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by spraying prominent trees and bushes |
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Male tigers mark their territories |
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The size of a tiger's home range |
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On the average a female's territory |
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Males have much larger territories |
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When one tiger smells the scent |
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it grimaces in what is |
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By following scent markings |
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males and females find each other. |
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The pair stays together for two or |
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for some periods as often |
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The hills are almost devoid |
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The sambar must come to the lake |
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The deer and the mugger crocodiles |
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The sambar are nervous and uneasy |
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ready to flee at the slightest sound |
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The constant and hidden menace |
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Though he failed to make a kill, |
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as is so often the case, |
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and athletic male specializes in |
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Early the next morning this same tiger |
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But to his fury the crocodiles |
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Intimidated by the crocodiles' |
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the tiger reluctantly retreats. |
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But like all of his kind he does not |
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For nine hours the tiger waits. |
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When sambar come down to drink, |
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Finally he summons up enough courage |
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The water is deep, and it takes |
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to swim through the water plants |
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The crocodiles' teeth are designed to |
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not to cut through skin. |
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During all the hours the sambar lay |
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they were unable to penetrate |
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The crocodiles make a few |
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but in the end give up |
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During the night a tigress has |
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The ever present tree pies |
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The birds eat only miniscule amounts, |
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but the tigress resents any |
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and relentlessly chases them off. |
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Her usual strategy for dealing with |
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would be to drag the carcass |
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But this kill is too heavy, |
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Another ruse would be to cover it |
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But these are absent here, |
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and the stones she tries to |
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The only thing left to do |
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by virtually lying on top of it. |
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The kill is well worth protecting |
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for she can expect to feed on it |
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The next morning the tigress |
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During the night it has been wrested |
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She watches from a distance while |
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Wisely the tigress does not stay to |
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She retreats to a spring |
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Another tigress did fight over a kill. |
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Spring is the rutting season |
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The stages spray themselves |
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In this way they become more |
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and more intimidating to other males. |
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In April, as spring changes to summer, |
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it becomes drier and hotter. |
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For the sambar the squeeze |
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between the need to drink |
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and running the gauntlet of tigers |
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The sambar, |
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cannot see the tiger. |
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To them the tall grass |
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May is the height of summer |
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Tigers stay close to the water holes. |
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Another six weeks of |
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before the monsoon brings relief. |
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Kanha, in the meantime, |
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But because it is a less arid region, |
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The streams have ceased to flow. |
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Only sporadic water holes remain. |
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Moisture is at a premium. |
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Even a patch on wet sand is prized |
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The cubs of the cave-dwelling |
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The two, a male and a female, |
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The cave has a commanding view, |
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and the tigress keeps watch for |
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and for anything that may be |
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In late afternoon the tigress sets |
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The cubs follow her. |
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Before she has gone very far |
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the tigress meets a real danger |
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the resident male tiger. |
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She calls on all her ferocity to |
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Territorial males, which are |
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are the main threat |
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After the frightening confrontation, |
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the female cub seeks reassurance. |
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The summer heat continues. |
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Every day it is 105 degrees |
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The few water holes are shrinking. |
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Animals must travel long distances |
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As in Ranthambhor, there is a constant |
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A white-breasted kingfisher |
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and bathes frequently to cool himself. |
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Langur monkeys spend hours licking salt |
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and other minerals from the rocks |
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The water hole attracts a multitude |
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Even the shy red junglefowl, the gaudy |
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must leave the protection of |
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A lesser adjutant stork probes |
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The checkered keelback snake is |
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treated with circumspection |
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But the reptile is no threat |
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It is non-venomous and |
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The deserted water hole no longer |
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When the oppressive heat |
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the barasingha emerge from |
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It is a time too when the tigress |
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Before she sets out to feed |
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she killed two nights ago, |
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the tigress suckles her young |
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during an interlude of |
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This morning the tigress did not bring |
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even though they are old enough |
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Danger in the form of the male tiger |
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When the male approaches, |
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covering it with leaves. |
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She will stay with in |
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Early June is the hottest, |
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The shade temperature rises |
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Tigers suffer more than most animals |
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Then one day in mid-June, |
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as the koel and the brainfever |
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a cool wind whips up; |
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The monsoon has finally arrived. |
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For four days it rains |
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sometimes lightly, sometimes in torrents. |
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The temperature drops about 20 degrees |
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The heat, the dry streams, |
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the aridity of eight virtually |
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have disappeared at one stroke. |
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After the monsoon's first days of rain |
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Kanha has been transformed, |
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Termites celebrate the onset on |
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Velvet-textured mites erupt out of |
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Male bullfrogs vie for the females |
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Life has been liberated by the rain. |
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Plants explode into untrammeled growth |
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The new lushness attracts hordes |
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and when the caterpillars unleash |
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they are an effective restraint |
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In July, when the monsoon |
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the chital gather on the grassland, |
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which soon reverberate with the sounds |
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A peacock unfurls his train a symbol |
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A predator other than the tiger, |
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and one feared by all the animals, |
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moves down from the hills |
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spreading disquiet in forest |
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It is the Indian wild dog. |
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No animal is safe from these marauders |
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and even the mighty tiger will usually |
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The dogs move in packs that |
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though an individual wild dog |
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could never challenge the supremacy |
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large packs have been known |
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During such a fight the big cat can |
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Once a besieged tiger destroyed 12 dogs |
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As the younger dogs play, |
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they are watched by a mob |
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The herd rushes into the forest |
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The incapacitated are left behind. |
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The lush grasses lure the reclusive gaur, |
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or Indian bison, |
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These are the largest wild |
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A large bull stands over six feet |
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and may weight up to 2,000 pounds. |
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The adults have little to fear |
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It is the calves and yearlings |
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Whenever a tiger is detected, |
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when the cows and bulls snort |
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the big cat has no chance |
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To the contrary, an alerted herd |
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At the turn of the century some 40,000 |
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By 1972 they numbered fewer than 2000. |
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This grim fact was the signal |
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and far-reaching conservation efforts. |
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These have been so effective that |
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its best chance is now probably |
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in reserves like Kanha and Ranthambhor |
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where the tiger has already made |
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With Kanha's riches restored |
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the tiger is no longer tied to |
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It wanders widely and leaves the plains |
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A green curtain is drawn over |
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and the tiger becomes more |
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a hidden force that inspires |
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among all the animals |
