Ranthambhore - Day 02

Happy with the great start of the day before, we woke up that morning with the hope to keep the luck standard that has helped us seeing tigers everyday up to that moment. We met our guide at the hotel, but he was a different guide and there was a different driver as well – in Ranthambhore there is apparently not a logic rule that may leave us attached to a fixed team of guide and driver.

After picking up the other guests at a neighbor hotel, we are informed that the permit was for Route 2 in that opportunity, one of the most western routes. This route has a different checkpoint, a busy one we should say, since there is a still active Ganesh God worship temple inside an ancient fortress. We can clearly appreciate the walls of the fort on the top of the hill settled on the borders of the cliff facing the entrance of the route.

We have learned that some people saw T.17, the same female tiger we saw on the day before, on Route 3, meaning that she went exactly to the opposite side of our route, been totally out of our track in that morning.

Peacock Display back to us


Lesser-Adjutant Stork


In a certain point of the route we stood by a small canyon where the people on a canter supposedly saw a tiger or a leopard climbing one of the sides of the canyon. Unfortunately we arrived late and we could not see any animal moving or scaling the rocks of the canyon – the sunlight didn’t help either since the rocky wall was totally on the shadow and the sun was still behind it completely obfuscating our eyes. If there was indeed a bigcat there, it didn’t matter how big the animal could be we would not be able to spot it.

In the end of the game-drive, by the gate of the check-point we profited of our pause there to check-out the park to observe and laugh with the funny performances of the gang of langur monkeys.

Langur Troop on a Banyan Tree


Apparently there was a kind of dispute between 2 gangs of langurs. They did not fight, but they used any sort of place to escape of each other, jumping on car roofs, leaping between branches of a majestic banyan-tree in the middle of the check-point square, or just climbing the walls of the buildings around the Fort entrance. The locals did not appreciate too much the monkeys messing up on the jeeps roofs, and they just tried innocently to scare them away using handkerchiefs, obviously without any success.

Man Scaring Langur Off the Car Roof


Langurs at the temple


Langur Perfect Portrait


The morning game-drive came to its end without a single tiger sighting for the first time in our journey, but we had still our afternoon game-drive, and after refreshing in the swimming pool, watching the birds in the lodge gardens, and having lunch, we took a jeep back to the park again.

Rose-ringed parakeet at the lodge gardens
>

In that afternoon, the area to be explored was set to Route 5, a very dry route following the most eastern edge of core area of the park. New safari team again. The target for that game-drive was to try finding the male tiger T.5, seen in the morning game-drive by other people in that same route.

T.5 has a sister (T.6) and a brother (T.7); the three of them were frequently seen still together in the end of Route 5 where it rests the territory of their mother. The 3 sub-adults had been already expelled by the mother, but they were still around her domains and under her subtle supervision.

The Route 5 has no natural waterholes and the artificial ones are very small what turned this route less attractive, in our opinion; since there were also poor chances of seeing the local fauna around the water bodies as usually we could see along the other routes.

Along the road we took back towards the beginning of the Route 5 we asked the crew to stop the immediately the car – we saw a scene that we recall of having seen in photography books and also in Elliot’s blog where he told that he always wished to take a picture of a Langur surrounded by blossoms of the flame-of-forest tree. Inspired by his idea, as we had just spotted a couple of langurs on the top of a tree full of flame-of-forest flowers, we definitely did a stop.

Langur with flame-of-forest blossoms


The langurs were initially in the left side of the road where the sunlight was coming from, spoiling our attempts of achieving the ideal level of clarity and detail, but as they were very unquiet monkeys, they fortunately decided to change from that tree to another in the other side of the road where we could then see them with a more soft contrast in a more colorful background, despite having sometimes a branch blocking the view. Finally we could make it; we have got some frames of that fabulous ape eating picking and eating blossom by blossom until the tree had been nearly cleaned of their red flowers.

Langur eating blossoms


The joy of being with the langurs on those trees for so much time had been suddenly saddened by the fact that we should face the reality that our chances of spotting a tiger or another bigcat, such as a leopard, were absolutely exhausted. We returned to the hotel. That was the first day in our entire journey at the Indian National Parks that we could not see any tiger.


Note: you can click on the picture to take you to the original size picture in our Flickr album page, being better to see the photographs you like. Or if you may want to go straight to our Flickr page, please access the link Our Flickr Page

Ranthambhore – Day 01

Just after saying goodbye to all staff of Nature Heritage Resort we have been taken to the train station at Katni, where we took our sleeper train once again. We almost lost it, after having passed by a never-ending sequence of villages along the road between Bandhavgarh and Katni during the early evening hours; we have got to the train station just in time for getting in the wagon and go, and this rush had a cost, Cassio left his hat behind – most probably in the car back seat in the moment we parked in the station and took our luggage in the dark.

We passed more than 14 hours in that train, and finally arrived at Sawai Madhopur by the morning, and we have been taken to the Dev Vilas Hotel where we would spend the next 4 days to explore the Ranthambhore National Park. It was much hotter in Rajasthan than it was in Madhya Pradesh. The weather was extremely dry and we could notice differences immediately – there was that red dust everywhere and the scenery was mostly like semi-desert with dry and dry vegetation.

Typical Ranthambhore Scenery


The game-drives rules in Ranthambhore were different than in Bandhavgarh. There we had to share the jeep with guests of other hotels. The jeeps and guides did not belong to the hotel but to third-party companies hired by the Government; we were picked up by the jeep on the morning and afternoon, but it might be a different one each time – the guide/driver combination also changed, and they have a route assigned by the Forest Department before picking the guests at their hotels.

In Ranthambhore, there are 5 routes denominated by numbers from 1 to 5, being the Route 1 the one heading to the most Eastern side of the entrance while the Route 5 heads to the most western side of it – then the other 3 routes cover the East-Center, Center-Core and West-Center areas. The Route 3 is the one which covers the Core area, what is called the Heart-of-Ranthambhore where there is access to the Rajbagh Lake and it is the main area of the most famous tiger in the park: Machali, the oldest tiger in the touristic range if the park. Machali is to Ranthambhore what B2 is to Bandhavgarh.

Spoonbill


In the first afternoon, we met our first guide: Ravindar. There was a main road starting in the first park gate that crosses a kind of Buffer Zone. This road took us to a second gate passing through a small canyon – after the gate, depending on what route we got, we could take a track to the right or to the left, or continue ahead. In that afternoon, we had Route 4, and then we continued ahead until reach the corresponding ranger’s checkpoint before entering the Route 4 itself. A very dusty track surrounded by rocky hills in both sides introduced us to this new environment, very different from Bandhavgarh.

Park main road


Welcome peacock


We were still distracted assimilating the new scenery when the driver cried: Look! We immediately stopped the vehicle. There was something moving far away on the winding track ahead, but it was not close enough to distinguish what exactly animal it might be. We approached slowly and the guide then confirmed it was a tiger. That was really incredible that in the first 10 minutes of game-drive we could spot our first tiger in Ranthambhore – we were very excited with it.




The big cat was moving towards us actually, just walking calmly on the track, like a phantom not making any noise as the paw cushions smoothly touched the dusty ground. Despite the high temperature at that time, the tiger was moving around showing being plainly adapted to that tough weather. Ravindar explained that tigers would prefer to walk on the tracks indeed because the track would be cooler than going the rocks and bushes, but we indeed expected that they would be much more lethargic than they actually proved to be under such temperature.




T.17 is her name, a young but already adult tigress. In Ranthambhore the tigers do not get a name, but a number – less charming isn’t it? There are 34 tigers in the Ranthambhore core area and T.17 rules over a territory in the border of routes 4, 3 and 2, closer to the entrance. She does not have any cubs in the moment.




T.17 kept coming towards us and we backed off a couple of times along the route to give her more space. She walked to the left of the car making us think that she would go to the stream running just along the road, but then she turned to the right towards the hills and set her route away from us.




T.17 has 2 sisters, T.18 and T.19 and they are all Machali’s daughters (Machali is also known as T.16 – her official tag). T.17 had a female cub baptized of T.1, who was transferred together with T.18, her sister, to Sariska Reserve, the national park which has lost all his tigers to poaching. That is a truly sad story.




We could barely notice, but T.17 was wearing a radio collar for tracing. Ravindar said that 3 tigers use collars in Ranthambhore, and we personally guess that the collar may be necessary not for scientific research but to monitor T.17 just because her territory is on the edge of the core area, bordering the buffer zone where there are still active Hindu temples and many villagers circulating by bicycle or even by foot.




After T.17 vanished in the bushes on her way to the hills, we continued our journey into the Route 4, then feeling a big relief since we succeed spotting our tiger of the day. Along the route we saw many other animals and specially birds – and it was noticeable that the wildlife there was a bit different of Bandhavgarh. It was much easier to spot birds and frequently multiple species together.

Painted Stork


Black-headed Ibis


The Kingfisher


We came across a big waterhole in halfway to the end of the Route 4, where crocodiles were taking sunbath to raise their body temperature and chital deers browsed the grass and profited of the black drongos on their back to get rid of the parasites just like the well-known buffalos and oxpeckers symbiosis in Africa.

Crocodile Sunbath


Drongos and Chitals


Framed by the spotted deer legs


Black-winged Stilt


Next we reached an area called Lakarda where a village used to exist before being relocated to the buffer zone. Lakarda is Machali’s territory, but there was no sign of her that afternoon. We then took the track to the very end part of the Route 4, a very rocky slope making the contour of a deep and shady valley. There we spent some time trying to track a leopard that lives in a cave around there; however we followed the loud Sambhar deer alarm calls for quite some time without success. Leopards are really extremely elusive cats. I already confess that despite all promising attempts, we had no chance to see a leopard in India. Maybe on next time.

Busy waterhole


Chital Stallion


The end of the first game-drive approached and we just made half-turn and went back to the ranger’s checkpoint and headed out of the park. It was a really great start, we could see an adult female tiger and many other animals – the Ranthambhore Park is different and beautiful.

Back in the hotel, the swimming pool was waiting for our evening splash. We went all the way back to the hotel already dreaming about the next safaris…

Langur Family


Baby Langur



Note: you can click on the picture to take you to the original size picture in our Flickr album page, being better to see the photographs you like. Or if you may want to go straight to our Flickr page, please access the link Our Flickr Page

Bandhavgarh – Day 03 – Part 1

We rushed to the jeep outside the lodge gate, we are a bit late, but in fact, the guide Deepak was still sick, and that time, we would have no guide in the car with us. Raj explains that we can choose the ranger to go with us, which will be our only guide that morning. We ask Sujan, the driver to take Siddhu with us, and he arranged this at the rangers’ post and Route C was assigned to us. We missed listening to Raj and Deepak stories while standing by the gate waiting to enter the park, but there we go for Route C.




The sunrise is still under progress and light was very weak in the jungle. We drove through winding and colorful roads. The early sun beams hit this side of the park first, and we took the chance to enjoy the whole scenery as this area is very picturesque. Strangler trees wrap the other trees like a python snake does with its prey.




Nearby along the road we could see other animals that we have seen before but passing so fast since we had always the tigers as priority. The rhesus macaques run from us quickly as we pass by. A rhesus mother kept holding firmly her baby monkey while her friend joined her crossing the road as fast as he could. Against the early morning light, the vision of the monkey running was very beautiful.







After we left the dense jungle behind we passed along a low-grass area where we were caught by surprise: “Look, look the peacock exhibiting his tail to the peafowl!!” – a peacock was displaying its beautiful queue with very bright feathers that shined a lot as the bird turned around toward the rising sun. Despite being common to spot the peacock, we found that it was not so easy to see one displaying under such clear light and with no obstructions – we were in the beginning of the mating season, then that was the first sighting of such performance.




Arriving at the Center Point, Sujan went register his position of the order of arrival and then we can continue the game drive route-free. They guide and the driver take some time in the Center Point to grab something to eat and the “chai”. In this meantime, they get the information that tiger has been located by the mahout during the morning and it is lying in a dry river bed not far from the road at the area of Siddh Baba. The cars couldn’t go where the tiger was, but the elephants did. We would go for a Tiger Show!

The Tiger Show consists in getting on-board of a sort of cradle installed on the back of the elephant. There 4 people are settled and taken for a ride guided by the Mahout (the elephant’s keeper and owner). The mahout, with his ancient knowledge, is able to drive his elephant wherever he wants just by stepping slightly on the top of the elephant’s head, giving small kicks on the back of its ears and in some occasions poking the neck with a metallic stick.

The mahout quickly turns his elephant and positions the big animal side-by-side with the jeeps parked aside on the road waiting for their turn. The “guests” scale the cradle from the top of the jeep’s roof to achieve the top and take a place. The ride immediately starts after the mahout locks the cradle with an iron bar and skillfully takes the elephant across the grassland where the dry river bed is hidden behind the bushes.




The mahout, Janooh, rides Bendjeni, the elephant that took us for the Tiger Show, while Kutapan, was the other mahout, riding Vanraj, the big bull, alternated with each other to pick people up for the ride. Kutapan is the famous mahout of Bandhavgarh, he used to ride Gotham, another big bull, but Gotham has been transferred to another zone of the park.

The experience is different, this time we are taken towards the tiger not the tiger that comes towards us. Looks like we were being taken to the presence of the king for an audience! And there he was - a huge male tiger! Not at big as B2, but a respectable big cat. The male was called “New Male” by the locals. The New Male is called like this because he came recently from another neighbor area of the park (outside Tala Range, but still from inside Bandhavgarh). He approaches the areas of Siddh Baba and Chakradhara each time deeper inside B2’s domain. There is a theory that New Male could be son of Chakradhara tigress, coming back to his birth place, and also another theory says that he could be a male looking for the missing the tigress of his harem who has been recently transferred to Sariska Tiger Reserve. Younger than B2, whatever the theories say, New Male seems to have come to challenge B2 and try take over his territory. The New Male was following Chorbhera tigress that morning, but we could not see her around.




As we crossed the dry river, the elephant turned and there we were face-to-face with New Male lying on the ground. He was quite sleepy, but with our arrival he raises his massive head and looks straight into our eyes on the top of the elephant – he is not happy with us there, but he doesn’t feel threatened even with the big elephant so close to him. Of course there is an invisible line that sets the limit of distance the tiger will tolerate our presence, the mahout does not cross the “line”.




The Tiger Show can last around 15 minutes, but this short ride is unique. Differently of the other encounters, the tiger does not ignore the curious observers. The tiger stared the elephant and looked straight to the cradle where we were. Everything is very quick, the elephant does not stay absolutely still, so it is not easy to frame the big cat and the angle is difficult sometimes when the elephant is too close to the tiger lying down on ground, but the experience was great – having seen New Male is being testimony of the history of Bandhavgarh, maybe some time from now, New Male will manage taking part of B2’s territory, who knows?




We returned satisfied to the jeep, hopping off the elephant back to the car we still remain sometime looking the elephants going back and forth until New Male decides to move from there. The elephants take back to watch where he was going and we can see him cross the fire stripe at the grassland. He is going to look for Chorbhera, maybe, but our time is over, we have to go back to the camp.




Raj was around with other guests from the lodge, he said that the next day he will join us again and promised: “You will see how a Tiger Show is different with me on-board”. We couldn’t wait for it…





Note: you can click on the picture to take you to the original size picture in our Flickr album page, being better to see the photographs you like. Or if you may want to go straight to our Flickr page, please access the link Our Flickr Page

Sounds of the Jungle

I told before that the experience of sighting a tiger is a burst of senses. The dust in the air of the jungle smoothens the sunlight that tries to find its way through the leaves of the trees canopies and bamboos. There is not even a breeze and the air is hot. The scent of warm wood and dry leaves blends with an odd smell of the traces left by langurs. The atmosphere is set, you know that the tiger is approaching when you listen to the alarm calls from spotted deers, peacocks and sambhar deers - if you are lucky you may hear the roar of the tiger. You cannot notice the tiger until you see it clearly - the orange color of the his fur and the black stripes of his body moving through the bushes easily betrays your vision by desguised bythe shadows and yellow tones of the foliages - it is almost invisible. Then the tiger reaches a clear spot, the light reveals the big cat moving slowly, the massive paws touch the ground so heavily that you now can't loose his track anymore. There you go, camera on hands, can't stop clicking...



Play the sound file and listen to some of the most common alarm calls we hear in the forest. You will be able to notice the high pitch isolated screaming of the spotted deer (or Chital), like a small dog barking; and the loud alarm call of the peacock, which sounds more like a quick blow of a horn immediately followed by a series of usually 5 or 6 repeated strident callings.

It is a very low-quality recording, as it has been captured by the pocket-recorder we used for tagging the events along the game-drive. But we hope it can provide a slight idea of the environment where the pictures were taken.

Cheers.