B2 and Other Great Tiger Pics from India

[DaveB]

(03-14-2023, 10:37 AM)Roflcopters Wrote:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Rudra vs Balram

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Balram after the fight

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Rudra | North Tadoba | 2023
Rudra, two weeks before his yesterday's fight with Balram.
Tiger fights are vicious, even fatal. Or then clean faces like in this video can get scarred within a matter of seconds.
North Tadoba: Battle zone of male tigers, except for that brilliant almost 4-year reign of Matkasur. Now 4 male tigers are roaming different parts of Maya's territory-Rudra, Balram, Mowgli and even Bajrang. Another male Yuvraj could also be slipping into waterhole 97, which was Maya's stronghold. Now Tara is spending time there. Maya is one tigress who is carrying all of this on her tough shoulders from the past almost 8 years of being a mother, and undoubtedly her cubs have constantly come in the line of danger.
In this shot, Rudra is looking pensive. After mating with Maya a few days earlier he came looking for her, first behind Tadoba lake and then Panchdhara and then onto Hill top and onwards. The shoulder abrasion in the video could be from a skirmish or even from a hunt.
Then Maya was seen vulnerable as she protected her cub around the colony area. After yesterday's fight, Balram, who is accepted as Maya's cub's father seems to be consolidating his territory. If Balram prevails as dominant male atleast in some parts of Maya's territory, it will let Maya have more areas in her territory to keep her cub safe. If Rudra or any other male other than Balram consolidates, it will push Maya to keep her cub towards the extreme southern or other parts of her kingdom and then constantly travel towards the North to protect her kingdom, as other tigresses could visit parts of it, including Tara, who is already spending time in the eastern part of Maya's territory.
5 dominant male tigers, almost all of them war veterans, roaming the old territory areas has disrupted the females in North Tadoba. Even towards the south of her kingdom, Maya could face a tigress who could herself be protecting cubs and coming towards Chital road. And to imagine, Matkasur singularly controlled Maya's and Tara's areas and more like Zari tigress's area, till Bajrang briefly pushed him out of some of Tara's areas. Fortunately, by then his two male cubs with Tara were sub adults and were moving out. Matkasur then kept the whole of Maya's territory and in those days made up for lost ground by consolidating areas towards the west with tigress Bhanuskindi.
Rudra's damp nose is a sign of good health, and his eyes tearing could just be a sign of keeping his eyes clean during that long walk.

write up by : Sumesh Lekhi 

Ohh!! Looks like a lot of action is happening in Tadoba suddenly.... From the images Balram looks larger in size than Rudra but looks like it wasn't that easy for Balram too.... Those injuries on the face of Rudra look pretty bad especially the one near his eye, hope he is able to recover soon from it. .... It will be interesting to see how things go if Balram and Mowgli happen to bump into each other now. 

@Roflcopters, any idea who Balram's parents are? Reply