Tiger Directory

[Apollo]

Ive said previously that T28 was injured and treated by forest officials from Ranthambore. The injuries were due to the fight with Pacman.

Below I share the videos of T28 limping and Pacman following him, along with the personal experience of the one who shared it.

We are cruising along Zone 4 of the Ranthambore National Park in our canter. We come across an intersection of trails. The guide notices some fresh pugmarks. It looks more like a human footprint.

What’s more, there are other smaller pugmarks criss-crossing with this one. Several members of the group are now unsure of what they see. They definitely do not look like a cat’s pugmark (small or big). That is when our guide tells us that the human like footprints belong to a sloth bear whereas the smaller ones belong to a porcupine. Something we are seeing for the first time. While the porcupine may have crossed this trail of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR) in the night, the sloth bear pugmarks are fresh. We are all excited at the prospect of sighting a sloth bear. Just as we are following the pugmarks we see another set of footprints – this time it is a jackal. Ranthambore safari can be full of surprises. However, the jackal too has crossed trail sometime in the night. So we continue to pursue the trail of the sloth bear.

We move deeper into the Ranthambore forest. As we do so, we cross the Malik Lake, the third lake of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR). Malik Lake can be spotted from Zone 3 as well as Zone 4. We finally reach a place within Zone 4 of the Ranthambore National Park that looks like a forest office. Although we have no luck with spotting the sloth bear, however, we do observe a few birds here – a White-throated kingfisher, a Rose-ringed parakeet and several Rofous treepie aka Indian treepie.

We are ready to head back and continue the Ranthambore safari. All of a sudden we hear a call. Everybody freezes and becomes silent. The driver stops the canter and switches off the engines. We wait. Maybe the sloth bear is still hanging around. We may get lucky. Then we hear another call. The guide and the driver both agree the call belongs to a Spotted deer or Chital. It may have spotted something and is alerting the other animals. The guide and driver are now trying to place where the call is coming from. Just then, one more call. This time they know where it came from. The guide calls out “Sit down everyone, and hold tight” as the driver starts the canter and heads in the direction of the call hurriedly. Each member is now trying to locate any movement in the forest. The atmosphere is filled with suspense. The only other thing as thrilling as spotting a tiger is the hunt for the tiger using whatever clues you have. 

The driver stops the canter along the trail. They have spotted something. It is another pugmark. And this time it is not a sloth bear, it is a tiger, a large male tiger. We drive on and within a few minutes we see it. A huge tiger is walking amid the trees. It is Star male aka T28. This territory belongs to him. Everyone is now scrambling from excitement to get a good look and maybe a few good shots. This is the second tiger sighting for the group in Ranthambore. The driver and guide know where he is headed to. And we drive on. 

T28 is headed for a small stream of water to cool off. He sits down now. We park our canter at a point in the trail that is closest to him and watch. There is pandemonium in the canter right now and the group cannot wait to get a closer look at the tiger. While we are looking at Star male (T28) we realise that he is looking right back at us. Everyone is frozen in that moment.

Star male is also called Sitara. In 2009, Machli, the lady of the lake had killed a sambhar. T28 was around and stole the kill from her. While he was in his prime back then, she was not and Machli surrendered. T28 has mated with Machli’s daughter T19 and is the father of T83 (Lightning), T84 (Arrowhead) & T85 (Pacman). 

We spent a good 30 minutes observing Sitara (T28). We were only canter around so we could watch him in silence. Eventually, he got up and started walking towards the other side of the trail. At one point he was so close we could have stretched our hands just touched him. We also observed that he was limping slightly and had a gash in one of his front legs.

We are extremely lucky to be able to see him at such a close range and that too for such a long time. This is one sighting each of us will be remembering forever. 

It is around 9 am on this lovely Sunday morning. Our morning canter safari in Zone 4 of Ranthambore National Park is coming to an end and we are headed back to the entry point. We had spent almost an hour observing Starmale, T28 aka Sitara just sometime back. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be able to witness a huge male tiger at such close proximity. Words cannot describe what we are feeling right now.

As we are driving towards the exit we see multiple safari gypsies stationed ahead of us on the trail. A tourist from one of the vehicles gestures to us to halt where we are. We are about 100 meters away. Our canter has now halted and we are curious to find out what’s going on. We are on a slight incline and the vehicles ahead of us are on top of this incline. So we are able to see through the gap between the ground and bottom of the vehicle. As we look we notice four legs belonging to a large animal through this gap walking in our direction. Looking closely we realise what it is. We are looking at a tiger walking towards us. We are unable to see the whole body since it is blocked by the vehicle ahead of us. The guide gestures to all of us to remain calm and make no noise.

Eventually from behind the vehicle a handsome young male tiger emerges. It is Pacman (T85) again. We had spotted him just the previous day. It was as if today he came looking for us. We are delighted as he walks slowly right past our canter. This cannot be happening we thought. We were able to spot two male Ranthambore tigers in the same safari within a span of a few minutes. We waste no time in making the most of this rare encounter and take several photos as we take a good look at him.

We also observe that Pacman (T85) is headed through this part of Ranthambore forest towards Star male (T28). Pacman is his son. Interestingly, once tigers reach maturity they are known to stake claim to the territory belonging to their father or mother. Starmale (T28) needs to watch out. We also recollect that Starmale had a gash on his front leg. Perhaps, Star male may even have injured his leg in a territorial fight. At this moment however, we are not sure.

I think T28 (Star male) is bigger than Pacman (T85). Because the narrator states star male as a huge male and Pacman as a young male.

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