Tiger Directory

[Apollo]

Video shot by Raghavendra Sharma. Tiger sightings are not easy. And seeing the territorial fights of Tigers not at all. Out of 1000 Tiger sightings that you might have, there is a chance that you will see it only once. So that rare it is. In this video you see Spotty Tigress in water circling her sub adult cub who is a bit over two years now.

Normally Tigresses start to rebut the cubs when they are nearing 20 months or a little over. When she starts to notice that the cubs are getting confident and have started to stay alone for some time and have learnt the art of bringing down some prey, mostly small to begin with. And the cubs do it together initially to get the confidence. And once they get the confidence they move to look for their own territory. Males do tend to share the territory if the mother is accommodating, but female cubs mostly not. There are times when female cubs in a matter of months come back to throw the mother out of her territory. Depending on the age of the mother this is possible. Such is the world of the Tigers.

In this video you see Spotty the beautiful Tigress of Bandhavgarh trying to fend off her about 2 year old cub. He is not willing to leave the comforts of the water in the hot weather. It can be suicidal for him if he ventures leaving this comfort to an area which could belong to another dominant male. As without water it will become practically impossible for him to survive, water is not only required to quench thirst but to cool them when the mercury is 40 degree celsius and above. Mother perhaps would want not to have competition as the cubs once grown up need more food, which will mean more hunting in this weather which is not comfortable for her. Besides she also could be looking to mate as it is practically two years since she did. It is normally noticed that in monsoon the cub will leave the area or the mother depending on who is stronger.

despite our wanting to see many Tigers and wanting them to be around the Tigers unfortunately have to do justice to their instincts and species...survival of the fittest.

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