WOW MOMENTS
Tigers eat sloth bears, don't they?
This tigress (and her two cubs) in Panna fed on this sloth bear kill for four days. Photo by K.Yoganand
In India’s jungles tigers sometimes kill sloth bears. And eat them for breakfast – and lunch and dinner if there’s anything left over! Although the shaggy sloth bear, one of four species of bears found in India, has a fearsome reputation for unprovoked aggression, Baloo is obviously no match for Shere Khan. Bear hair in tiger scat is not an unusual sight in forests where the two species coexist. My friend, Dr. K. Yoganand, a wildlife biologist who studied sloth bears in the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, not only witnessed many aggressive encounters between bears and tigers, he even photographed a tiger feeding on a fresh sloth bear kill. Obviously there is little love lost between the two species, which makes the incident I’m about to narrate rather unique.
In early 2008, a small group of us, including renowned tiger expert, Dr. Ullas Karanth, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, witnessed a remarkable interaction between the two protagonists, the likes of which I’d never even dreamed of seeing in my decades as a professional wildlife cameraman and filmmaker. Here’s what happened.
February 2nd 2008: We are seated in a watchtower overlooking a distant pool in the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka towards the end of a warm day. Several broad ‘view lines’ cleared by the park management radiate from this tower, allowing one to see animals that pass by on all sides. A small herd of chital or spotted deer is grazing in one of these view lines.
Around 4.30 p.m. the deer suddenly perk up, and, gazing into an adjacent patch of forest, signal with their high-pitched alarm calls that they have spotted a predator, probably a big cat. Within minutes they melt away into the forest on the other side, but we remain on high alert.
After what seems like eternity, but is in fact about 20 minutes, we hear the loud woofing sounds of a sloth bear from the patch of forest that the chital had been suspicious of. Tense Anticipation in the tower, with all binoculars now riveted in the direction of the hidden mystery. Five minutes later, a large male tiger steps out of the patch of forest and into the view line, about 200 meters from our perch in the tower.
As we watch in disbelief, the tiger is followed by an obviously agitated sloth bear that begins charging towards the predator. The big cat turns around, and we brace ourselves for a horrendous battle resulting in one very dead bear. Instead, confounding our belief, and standing conventional wisdom on its head, the tiger calmly flops down and contemplates the bear with complete equanimity!
In early 2008, a small group of us, including renowned tiger expert, Dr. Ullas Karanth, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, witnessed a remarkable interaction between the two protagonists, the likes of which I’d never even dreamed of seeing in my decades as a professional wildlife cameraman and filmmaker. Here’s what happened.
February 2nd 2008: We are seated in a watchtower overlooking a distant pool in the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka towards the end of a warm day. Several broad ‘view lines’ cleared by the park management radiate from this tower, allowing one to see animals that pass by on all sides. A small herd of chital or spotted deer is grazing in one of these view lines.
Around 4.30 p.m. the deer suddenly perk up, and, gazing into an adjacent patch of forest, signal with their high-pitched alarm calls that they have spotted a predator, probably a big cat. Within minutes they melt away into the forest on the other side, but we remain on high alert.
After what seems like eternity, but is in fact about 20 minutes, we hear the loud woofing sounds of a sloth bear from the patch of forest that the chital had been suspicious of. Tense Anticipation in the tower, with all binoculars now riveted in the direction of the hidden mystery. Five minutes later, a large male tiger steps out of the patch of forest and into the view line, about 200 meters from our perch in the tower.
As we watch in disbelief, the tiger is followed by an obviously agitated sloth bear that begins charging towards the predator. The big cat turns around, and we brace ourselves for a horrendous battle resulting in one very dead bear. Instead, confounding our belief, and standing conventional wisdom on its head, the tiger calmly flops down and contemplates the bear with complete equanimity!
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The nonplussed bear then walks towards the tiger and, when it has approached it to within spitting distance, rises up on its hind legs. The tiger simply looks at the bear and yawns. The bear then retreats into the forested patch, and the tiger flops on its side and goes to sleep!
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Drama over, we turn to Ullas Karanth and ask him “what the hell was all that about?!”. Here is his interpretation of what took place: “it is likely that the bear had cubs with her in the patch of forest when the tiger crossed paths with them. The woofing alarm call we heard earlier would have been the female warning the tiger off. She probably followed him out into the clearing to make sure he was heading away from her cubs. As for the tiger, his belly was full and he was not interested in food. When not hunting, tigers are often totally disinterested in the presence of prey. I suppose if this cat could feel ‘amusement’, as we did, he probably just found the bear’s antics entertaining.” As Murphy’s Law would have it, faced with this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, none of us had a camera with a big telephoto lens. I clicked away with a point-and-shoot camera, and the distant pictures had to be blown up by 300 per cent to bring the action closer. But, thankfully, at least I have proof! Now no one can say “oh really? So what exactly were you smoking that day?”!
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Olive Ridley Nesting
Olive Ridley arribada in Odisha. Photo by: Bivash Pandav
The great olive ridley arribada in Orissa definitely qualifies as a ‘wow moment’ by any yardstick. The sight of thousands of these ancient reptiles hauling themselves onto the beach to lay their eggs is one that I can never forget. In 1992 I was also witness to millions of eggs hatching on the remote Gahirmatha beach in Orissa. The tiny hatchlings rushed headlong towards the moonlit sea, where they would spend the rest of their lives. We had to tread very carefully on the beach lest we step on the hatchlings! In those days, there used to be two mass nestings at Gahirmatha, the second one coinciding with the hatching of the first batch of eggs. It was incredible to see waves of females lumbering ashore from the sea while millions of hatchlings were rushing into it. Today olive ridleys are being decimated by mechanized fishing, artificial lights on the beach and habitat destruction. How much longer will the Arribadas go on in the face of our callousness?
Pictures: Left top and bottom right: Belinda Wright; right top and bottom left: Shekar Dattatri. All rights reserved.
