“Tiger! Tiger!”
There was a frenzy amongst the jeeps and canters assembled near the lake where a tigress had been spotted earlier that day. We were privileged to spend the next 20 minutes watching her move languidly around the waterline to the head of the lake, take a short bath and wander back before disappearing off into the grass cover.
Just incredible to see her in the wild.
Ranthambhore is on the map because of its population of Bengal tigers. As tourism and the human population increased, fatal tiger-human interactions and poaching did, too. So the Indian government started Project Tiger in 1973. The area has expanded to from 60 to 392 square km, and was declared a National Park in 1980.
Tourists can only access 30% of the park, and this is divided into 10 zones. Drivers, guides and zones are randomly allocated. You pays your money, and you takes your chance.
Back to our tigress. “Arrowhead” (or T-84) will live to about 15 or 16 years and have 4 or 5 sets of cubs during this time. We didn’t see her two cubs. They’re about two years old, so in another 12 months she’ll leave them and move away to mate again.
Other interesting info:
- Catching a big deer will last her 4 or 5 days, whereas a small deer only two.
- She will hunt on average once a week
- Her hit rate is about 1 in 10
- She eats deer, antelope and monkeys but not birds
- Deer are faster, and she can only run 15 to 100 metres so she relies on the element of surprise
- Hunts are more successful in the early morning and late evening as tigers are warm-blooded animals, so more alert out of the heat of the sun
Mind you, I had to work quite hard to extract this information from the “guide” – he was on a single-minded tiger hunt to see and photograph them. That we might actually want to know about tigers clearly didn’t cross his mind. Maybe most tourists don’t, which is sad.
We also saw red spotted deer:
Samba deer:
And monkeys:
Monkeys and deer are good friends. Monkeys deliberately drop leaves and fruit from the tree for the deer to feed upon, and they have good eyesight so can spot tigers and give the warning signal. The guide said the deer don’t give anything back, but I wondered if that’s true.
Firstly, there’s safety in numbers – the more eyes the better.
And secondly, if I was a tiger and had a choice between a small monkey and a juicy deer, I know what I’d go for. I doubt the monkeys are behaving completely altruistically.
Ranthambhore is named after the fort. Built in 944 CE (or 1110 CE, depending on which theory you read) it changed hands multiple times before passing to the Kachwaha Maharajas of Jaipur in C17 until Jaipur acceded to India in 1949.
It was a very pleasant, interesting place with lots to explore (and lots of steps!) including a deserted palace overlooking a well-maintained garden:
Various courtyards with good views:
And it was overridden with black-faced, long-tailed monkeys – feisty creatures with a mischieveous streak:
When the gates of the park were left open, they proceeded to jump and bounce off them, using the swing of the gate to launch themselves. Activity got more frenetic as the park keeper strode over, with the little devils getting as much fun out of the gates as possible before they were closed.
A honey badger:
The wonderfully-named “rufus tree-pie”:
Two lakes:
Covered in rubbish 🙁
Some gators:
After the tranquility, and relative peace from tourists, in the fort, the Ganesh temple area was a considerable contrast, a hive of activity:
And my tally of selfies with various Indians increased significantly – lots and lots of requests, some of whom wanted various combinations of themselves and others. I feel like a minor celebrity.
