Tigers of South India & Western Ghats

[Ngala]

Photo and information credits: Praveen Siddannavar Photography
Prince – An Old Warrior of Bandipur!
He is massive, big, and powerful and strongly believes in hunting bigger prey; Gaur (Indian bison) tops the list in his food menu. He believes in “Conquer and Rule”, he covers a very large territory of the Bandipur forests; there is no doubt he is dominant, a great hunter and believes in knocking out his enemy without any mercy.
We at BWP (Bangalore Wildlife Photographers Group) visited bandipur on the weekend and had some amazing sightings of Prince and the highlight was to witness him chasing a herd of gaurs. Prince is approx. 9-10 years old, he has been injured on many occasions and we have seen his injuries healing over a period of time. However one can notice his hind right leg that has a large tumor and at times he seems lipping. When we spotted him on the first day (Saturday) he was starving with hunger, the chasing of gaurs was unsuccessful, however finally on Sunday he hunted down a Sambar and was seen resting in a large water body.
#BWP
10th September 2016
Bandipur tiger reserve, karnataka, India

*This image is copyright of its original author

I love water! – Prince of Bandipur... A typical behavior of a big cat, leopards are exceptions, however especially tigers love water and soak in the water after making a kill and consuming part of the meat. Heat generates at high intensity while hunting and more so after consuming the fresh meat, this was the case here with Prince. He was seen hunting down a sambar and later he walked straight towards this water body and was not just seen relaxing but I was fortunate to document him wag his tail on several occasions to splash water on his back to cool him off. It’s always a great feeling to document various behaviours of these cats. Will share few more behaviours that I documented including splashing of water using his tail.
A lot of them must be wondering why tigers sit moving their back first in waters, despite tigers loving water so much they will do anything to avoid water touching or splashing their eyes, that’s one reason that they are seen entering into water in reverse direction. On the other hand leopards don’t fancy water except to quench their thirst…
11th September 2016
Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India 

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Prince scent marking - Its always a treat to our eyes to spot tigers and more so to document their behaviours. Here’s one such behaviour that I was fortunate to document during our recent BWP trip to Bandipur. Scent marking, also known as territorial marking or spraying when this involves urination as seen in this image.
This is a behavior used by tigers and other cats to identify their territory. Most commonly, this is accomplished by depositing strong-smelling substances contained in the urine, faeces, or from specialised scent glands located on various areas of the body. Other ways of marking territory are by rubbing the chin to tree trunk, these cats have scent gland in their cheeks that attracts females or warns a male tiger in the same territory.
Location- Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka State, India.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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