Predator Overload

So I finally got the much needed permission and managed to stay in the forest for a while. To start off, We (me, malini and narayana the local tribal guy) went there at 7pm and it was quite dark already. I parked the jeep on the road, about 10m away from the kill and waited. Last week I bought one of those LCD lights which you can strap on to your head and use for night treks and stuff. I thought this was a good time to use the new light, so I put it on my head and switch on the light and I see two eyes glowing right in front of me ( this is to the right of the jeep). I thought it was a deer and did not pay attention and switched off the light. After few min, I switched it on again to see if anything had come and this deer was still there. I got suspicious and decided to use my bigass maglight torch on the animal and voila it turned out to be a leopard.

It was sitting about 20m from our jeep just staring at me. OK… So we said nothing to worry and continued to wait…. waited.. waited…. waited for 2 hours and nothing happened. The leopard was also waiting there along with us. During this time, we got to a hear lot of alarm calls, tiger roars and gaur rutting calls. Eventually it got too cold and sleepy to stay there any longer, so we decided to get back to the camp. Before we did that, we decided to keep the camera trap facing the kill, just in case something come in during the night. So I step out of the jeep along with the local tribal guy and go near a tree to tie the camera trap. Suddenly a leopard jumps from the exact same tree, lands about 2m away from us, gives us the ‘You idiots’ look and walks away. Out hearts sink and we rush back to the jeep. We waited for couple more min and eventually made it till the tree and tired the camera. On the way back to the resort, we managed to see another leopard on a rock. The we realised, there were no battries in the camera, so we drove back to the kill and there was a leopard there having a feast right in front of us. This one gave us the ‘Will you leave me alone’ look and walked away into the bushes..

The next morning we rushed to the spot to check out what happened. One of the legs of the gaur was missing. So we knew something was there. We opened up the trap and voila there was a leopard, wild boar and the king of all the TIGER. Here’s the sequence of images from the camera trip

First I go test the trap,
then came the leopard,
then the wild boar,
then the tiger chases away the boars,
and then feasts on the kill.

Now we are kicking ourselves for not staying through the whole night.

31 Comments

  1. noelladsa · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Phew thank goodness you’ll didn’t.Who likes to be watched eating :O!

  2. shruthi_dipali · April 1, 2005 Reply

    really cool… 2m from a leopard.. lucky you… i would have died of a heart attack if i were you… nonetheless would give anything to experience that.. kick ass adventure dude..

  3. krishi · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Ok, you’re the craziest dude i’ve known in my life – 2m from a leopard!!!!

    BTW, I’m not able to make much out of the last 2 photographs — can’t see the boars being chased away and the tiger feasting. :-((

  4. dhempe · April 1, 2005 Reply

    spectacular man !! now we need to head there soon !!

  5. creamanups · April 1, 2005 Reply

    2m from a leopard…man this is unbelievable stuff

  6. rohandsa · April 1, 2005 Reply

    I’m just tryin to figure out how Kalyan managed to get through all this without getting eaten up himself in the bargain…

  7. teemus · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Does Bandipur have crocs?

  8. say_yes04 · April 1, 2005 Reply

    I just opened the pictures in different TABS and then switched tabs rapidly and it almost looked like an Action sequence. well almost

  9. say_yes04 · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Is this jeep of yours closed or open gypsy types ?

  10. shandeegoddess · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Wowerz =D
    Shandee <3

  11. eppendorfs · April 1, 2005 Reply

    Sounds like a nerve wrecking movie … Bravo!

  12. nithya · April 1, 2005 Reply

    be thankful the animals didnt plan for a change of menu for dinner that night.. dude take care da..

  13. bijoyv · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Two big cats in one night! Man, you’re as good as Kenneth Anderson!

  14. noelladsa · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Bheemaswari has crocs

  15. noelladsa · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Hm..I don’t think so..Humans are supposed to be junk food..and are consumed during severly trying times where there is really nothing else to eat.Ok thats out of my hat.

  16. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    I don’t have enough fat in my body to be a tasty tiger snack 😉

  17. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Loads and loads of leopard sighitngs this week. Planning to visit again ? 😉

  18. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Increase the contrast on your monitor. Will get more details out of the picture when I come back to bangalore.

  19. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    tell me about it. It took me a while to digest the incident

  20. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Its a open gypsy. I would have slept off there if it was a closed jeep 🙂

  21. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    am totally taking care da. Safety first and then everything else

  22. admin · April 2, 2005 Reply

    What I forgot to mention was that I saw two wild dogs on the way there. So I got to see all the top predators of the forest in one day 🙂

  23. noelladsa · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Hahahahah ( I know me of all people shouldn’t be laughing but ) hahaha

  24. drkishoremurthy · April 2, 2005 Reply

    frekin awesome luck!!! wow! *speechless* .. so do tell me how u did the camera trap??

  25. say_yes04 · April 2, 2005 Reply

    Good lord. So many occurences of the jeep will reduce the leopards inhibition towards the jeep. I suggest you get ourselves a convertible jeep if such exists !!

  26. crabhunt · April 2, 2005 Reply

    yes bheemaswari has crocs and who knows this better than me who had a narrow escape from one of them !!

  27. ashvinm · April 4, 2005 Reply

    That was awesome. You got to see all the predators in one go! Waiting to see some pics from your next visit.

  28. deepsan · April 4, 2005 Reply

    the look on the leopards face is priceless

  29. unitedrulez · April 11, 2005 Reply

    That is an amazing shot of the leopard….also the other good news is “3 tiger cubs have been given birth in Mysore zoo, good Ugadi gift to all wild life lovers….

    Keep those photos coming….

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