Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tulsi

Today morning we saw Tulsi tigress growling on one of akeeta's male cub. it was not a happy site. I immediately said that there must be some kill. Later on Mahavat's confirmed me that a sambhar kill is near by.
I still have firm belief in my opinion that Infanticide behavior do not occurs in Tigers. Cubs get killed for some other reason. Shashi and other male cu were seen moving in Ghiorademon so they must have joined them. We saw pugmark of two different male crossing the road towards kill side near lal mitti.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Gaur Behaviour

Yesterday morning we saw a male Gaur browsing and grazing in Sal forest. He was grazing on green shoots in some wet patch later he picked up few leaves from lower branches of Sal Shorea robusta . Then he just walked up to a 15-18 cm girth tree of Sal and pushed it to fell on the ground. He finished eating fresh soft juicy leaves before he moved to push another saplings. 
Me with Kim and Ram Darash guide saw this behaviour on 16th April 13. 
Now the question is,
Is this the first sign of poor habitat for Gaur?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Sambar in Chakradhara Bandhavgarh.

Last month when Mr Choudhary said that kankati kills more Sambar than Spotted Deer, I did not believe it. Day before yesterday afternoon when we enter the park we saw more than 40 Sambar in Chakradhara meadow from Siddhbaba temple to Watchtower junction.
How come Sambar population has gone so high in this area?
We had to see the territory chart of Chakradhara meadow.
There was no resident Tiger in chakradhara since Pyari left. So for almost two years there was no tiger hunting there. This made Leopard population grow and tourists witness a very good sighting here. These leopards were preying more or solely on Spotted Deer. This made Sambar population grow.
Most of the time Vijya also kept her cubs on fort hill. This made two male Leopard stay in Chakradhara. So when Vijya came back to Chakradhara she found killing Sambar easier than Spotted Deer. A bulky animal is always slower than lighter one.
These three adult Leopards are the main reason of depleted spotted deer population in Chakradhara.      

Friday, April 5, 2013

Tiger mating

Recently some Mahavats and guide Drivers reported that they have seen Sukhi Patiya female, present cubs are about a year old, with a male Tiger, and probably they were mating. Their presumption on this issue came from the noise they heard from the bush. 
Magadhi zone of Bandhavgarh National Park is very unstable area as far as the Tiger situation is concerned. There are only two female, that's what we think after seeing all the photographs of all the females seen in that area. But there are more than 2 male tigers are moving and probably a third one too.
When a new male moves in to any area he tries to over power female by literally pushing her physically. Mahavats and tourist vehicles did not see them actually mating but saw them laying or sitting close by. 

Once we heard the similar story and luckily we got the chance to witness this from an elephant back. A young male Tiger appeared i the area and found a female. He was simply following the female and did not let her go. Every time she moves he tries to stop her. But did not tried to mate. When he tried to stop the female they both growl at each other and this noise gave the impression of a mating to Guides and Drivers.
In domestic cats when hormone kicks up of a young male he tries to mate with female by literally over powering it. He cant make any real thing happen but all his actions shows as he is really mating. Female makes lots of noise to get rid of his clutches but because he is holding her from back of neck so she cant get away.