Princess of Kishanpur

She is young and youthful.Perhaps in a year she would start rearing cubs. We first saw her behind a sal tree from a distance of 500mtrs. The forest filled with sal trees and Teak trees looked magical in the evening. Long, narrow jeep trails, tall trees all resembled a cathedral architecture.

On that day, she was restless. She was busy searching prey. She crossed the tracks few times, would vanish deep inside jungle to hunt.We were lucky, we could find her in such thick jungle .

She ignored us totally. Jeeps, tourist, photographers , must be a common sight for her. Most of the time she couldn’t succeed in the hunt. But, she would get her feast in evening and we would get a chance to photograph the kill too at later point of time.

As She Crosses

Sometimes, you would be lucky.
While in Jim Corbett,Dikhala, every day morning and evening Tigress Parwali would cross the pool from one end to the other.Parwali always kept the timings.She wont be late for the show.

It was a delight to watch her walking from a distance,slowly crossing the Jeeps ,ignoring all the men or women,the hundereds of eyes watching her and move across other end.As she crosses,the choas stops.

There is a meditative silence.Like a prayer bell, frenzied shutter sounds are heard all over

Saw Scaled Viper

A close-up of Saw Scaled Viper,Thar Desert.
One of the highly venomous snakes of India,found in the desert regions.

The marking in the top is the identification of the species.The scales when rub creates the sound very similar to working of Saw.So the name.When provoked,the snakes rub the scales.Indeed,Quite an alert and aggressive snake.

Hide and Seek

Tiger ,from Ranthambore.

Desert Fox

Erwin Rommel,Field Marshal in World War II headed the German and Italian troops to establish supremacy of Axis forces in North Africa.He is popularly known as Desert Fox for his desert warfare strategies.

Here is a real Desert Fox – White footed fox . They are found in the deserts of Rajasthan,Gujarat,Pakistan,Iran & Iraq.This photograph was taken at Little Rann of Kutch,Gujarat.

They measure approx 2ft and weigh 4Kg.Quite a small in size.Larger than a cat.

In popular culture,fables, Fox are always associated with wickedness.Perhaps,it is their timid behavior tactics to protect themselves may be prompting to this popular perception.

Fox do live in solitary or as a pair.White footed Fox are known for their life-long pairs.Here this male was straying outside ,few meters away from den.The female was rearing the pups inside the den. This male is exposing itself vulnerably ,a tactic to wade the predators from approaching the pups.

 

The male and female fox do take care of protecting the pups.Given its size,fox are vulnerable to human or bigger predator.They are not big enough to fight against larger predators.The behavioral tactics,being timid,solitary help them to survive.