Wednesday was an interesting day with alarm calls coming from the Northern side of the farm, it was clear that a kill has happened during the early hours of the day. Our resident female was with 3 cubs, and listening to the call, I believed that the Tigers had killed a spotted deer at around 6 am that morning.
I waited till noon, which is when Tigers are least active, walked the short 100 meters from our cottage, which is where I thought the kill would be, and after waiting patiently for a good 90 minutes, I heard the spotted deer calling from my left, perhaps a 100 meters away from where I was sitting. The calls were getting closer, it was clear that the Tigers were approaching the kill.
I waited for the calls to die down, and soon it did, clear indication that the Tigers were on the kill and had started feasting on what was left of the kill. I inched closer, the dry teak leaves making it hard for me to move silently, and soon, I thought I saw something “white” behind a bush. I sat down and peered through the bush and it was one of the female cubs, she was on her back with her eyes closed, and she had no idea that I was there. I spent a good 30 minutes looking at her, I was less than 30 meters from her and if I had taken a photo, the clicking sound would have alerted her. I didn’t want to miss capturing her on film, and knew that the next move she would make would be to come down for a drink. Though there were a few waterholes around, I picked the one to the Western side of the farm. It was not the closest one from that spot, but I had a “feeling” that the family would choose this specific waterhole over the others.
I remember tiptoeing to the spot which was 100 meters away from the Tigers, 50 meters away from the watch tower, well inside the farm, and set I the camera trap hoping that my decision to place the camera in that spot would indeed be the right one. Thursday…
I went and retrieved the camera next morning, I was disappointed to see that it had taken just 1 photo and 1 corresponding video in the last 18 hours. I remember sliding the SD card into the card reader, with my dad and Anju standing behind me waiting anxiously.
There was a collective gasp as the photo slowly opened…
An interesting adventure from the jungles of Wayanad.
Anil
