Vintage

[sanjay]

An amazing photograph of chained Caracals in Jaipur during the early 1900's.

Maharajas tamed these beautiful wildcats along with the Cheetah and Leopard and used them on their hunting trips to help catch small game like deer, hares and birds.

An interesting piece of information with regard to this reads:

"To train them to attack and hunt, the keeper would put a piece of meat on the end of the bamboo cane and hold it up as high as he could, and one of the Caracals would make a prodigious spring from the ground to the top, taking the meat, before coming down again in an instant. Like Cheetahs, the Caracal too were taken out in carts blindfolded and were let out when within sight of hares and small deer, where they would creep up and spring upon them, holding them till the hunter comes and takes the animal. They are so intent on their work that they are easily blindfolded and led away again into the cart.

The Caracals were chained to rope cots (beds) or wooden poles in front of houses down the street with their keepers sitting or sleeping behind them as little children, peacocks and hens, wandered among them without the slightest fear."

Today the Caracal is nearing extinction in India. A wildcat i would love to see and photograph but not sure if i ever will.

*This image is copyright of its original author

  Reply