Leopard and Cub
I had one of the most amazing leopard encounters last week. Here’s what happened :
We were driving on the Bandipur-Mudhumalai highway at around 5:30 in the evening and as usual I was scanning around on either side of the road for any interesting wildlife. As we passed by a stationary car full of family, I wondered if they were looking at anything. So I slowed down and scanned on the right side of the road and Bingo.. I suddenly see something move parallel to the road and it was a leopard. I pulled my camera out and started clicking away.
The first glimpse of the leopard
It walked away and we thought we had lost it. We drove ahead just in case and then in the bushes we found not one, but two leopards. Then we realised it was a mother and a cub. They were both sitting in the understory and there were a lot of vehicles moving around without realising there were these leopards sitting by the road.
Mother and cub hiding in the understory
As I was photographing them, I suddenly witnessed something that I have never seen in the Indian forests. The leopard got up in a jiffy, kicked up a lot of dust and ran straight towards us. Since I was shooting, it just disappeared out of my view and I had to put the camera down to see what was happening. The mother came about less than 5 meters off my vehicle and then stopped. While this was happening, I could hear a Bonnet Macaque call onto the left. Then I realised that all along, the leopard was trying to ambush a macaque. I had seen this macaque earlier but had not paid attention to it and the macaque was next to my vehicle in the hope to get some junk food from us.
The macaque ran up a tree and started giving out the alarm calls. The leopard gave up the hunt at this point (assuming since the macaque already alerted the whole area)
Leopard looking at the macaque
This is when the mother suddenly realised we were actually there. I do not know if she realised it earlier or not, but she looked at us very surprised, growled and then relaxed.
Leopard realised we were parked there
Somehow the leopard decided to give it a second try and bolted towards the macaque again. At this point it crossed the road in front of me and since I was in the driver’s seat, I could not shoot anymore. The leopard disappeared in the understory and I thought the leopard would try to climb up the tree to catch the macaque.
Leopard dashing again to catch the macaque
While all this was happening, the cub was still sitting at the same place looking at its mother. I guess the cub knows then the mother has gone out hunting and knows it must not move. After a minute or so, we saw the leopard again on the left side. It did not get the macaque and was now sitting and calling out. We realised it was calling its cub and we also heard the cub respond back to the mother.
Thankfully when the leopard crossed the road, there were no vehicles. But soon a lot of cars that were passing-by saw the leopard sitting on the left side of the road and were slowing down. Luckily none of them stopped. They looked at it for a few seconds and drove away.
Mother waiting for the cub to cross the road
Then the worry started. The mother I assume was calling the cub to come over. So the cub slowly came out of the understory and was slowly walking towards the road with great caution. By this time we had driven a bit ahead as we didnt want to give away the leopards if any cars went by. Just when the cub reached the edge of the road, a huge truck came on the road and another car which was trying to overtake it honked.
The poor cub panicked and ran for its life back into the forest.
Cub running back into the forest
The mother continued to call and the terrified cub just sat down far away in the understory. After a few minutes, the mother walked inside the forest and we lost track of the cub too. We got really anxious as we didnt want any leopard road accidents, but we also realised, maybe the mother and cub were hesitant because of our presence. So we kept our fingers crossed and drove away
I really hope the mother and the cub got to re-unite later in the day. I actually wonder how many wild animals are suffering because of this busy highway through the forests.
Action-packed stuff
Classy image, Kalyan. Ready-to-strike pose, the eyes of the leopard – all well captured !!
Lovely write-up too – it’s very lively. When I was reading it, I felt I was there and watching the action!! 🙂 You really have captured the entire sequence well with your images. Unbelievable stuff !!
Awesome pics!
Excellent documentation…and yes, the road through the forest seems to be the source of a lot of difficulty for the animals…but what can be done about an existing road?
hello sir
Really Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper images even it looks that you have worked hard. Really lucky.ASHOK CHAUDHARY.
whoa.. lovely catch..
serious issue this.. and its not just with Leopards.
Good documentation..
wow!!
excellent pictures and wonderful encounter… now why do I never come across anything like this
This is just superb. Great work.
Great Capture
Vehicle traffic within the sanctuary is a definite threat to the wildlife!
Guess the leopards or other beasts mostly refrain from coming near the highway … at least during daytime. This occasion however forced it to do so for obvious reasons.
Sangfroid
leopard episode of yours
hi Kalyanji
hope you remember me ..it is of great luck and your everlasting spirits that are responsible for this kind of wild encounters . enjoyed your writing i would like to share same kind of story for which i was witness at corbett last week . at about 5 in the evening i was driving towards dhikala FRH . And some where near sultan guest house i heard smbhars alarm calls ,thinking that it must be tiger i removed my camera and was looking at shrubs, the samhar was stamping its right foreleg to ground and its tail raised was like typical explanation of field biologists during ambush of tiger. but no sight of tiger in the visinity . slowly some thing moved above my head on ficus tree ..alas . it was a full grown leopard which was sitting right above my head , suddeny it jumped off to thickets in a jiffy. these are the moments of indian jungles all of us cherish..thank you very much and best wishes,hope to see you in chickmagalore in comming days
lingaraja ss
great
kalyan, your description made my heart beat. it was very well written and i could just imagine the entire scene having gone on the bandipur highway a lot of times. i too had a good incident many years back at Kanha forest, MP. We were driving through the jungle and 7 lions were lying down there in the middle of the path. it was awesome although i was too young that time to appreciate it. they looked sleepy and we waited there over 5 hours before they moved and we drove on. it was a feast for the eyes.
Excellent shots, love the light on the 4th pic
A similar experience in Nagarhole
Excellent post there, Kalyan.
I had a similar experience in Nagarhole, its really annoying to see people not following the basic rules when inside a sanctuary in spite of having sign boards and the usual piece of advice by the forest guard at the entry.
May be they lack common sense or they don’t care!
—
Gopal Venkatesan
Phew!
Those were excellent pics Kalyan. Thanks for sharing.
amazing, love the 4th pic.
missing Bandipur
Man… i miss that place soooo much. Bandipur never ceases to amaze 🙂
— Chirdeep
Exciting incident and great photographs. Keep them coming mate. 🙂
Re: great
Who is this, who saw lions in Kanha? I also want to see them.
The beauty of it when sprinting!! Great shots.
great shot !
“Leopard realised we were parked there” thats a great shot !!
—
prabhu.ns
amazing…. really enjoyed reading this…
4th pic in the post, its a perfect portait, the eyes have a menacing look!!! Awesome!!!
4th pic in the post, its a perfect portait, the eyes have a menacing look!!! Awesome!!!
similar incident on the same highway
we were returning from a family trip through Bandipur highway and we spotted Elephant herd with baby elephants. As we were enjoying the view from the car and photographing … some stupid vehicle started to zip past with honk … and one of the elephant (probably mom) got agitated, and started charging at us. Some how it stopped and as the car was in running condition we were able to move faster.
Nagesh
We should be really thankful to some forest officers who opposed tooth and nail, building railway link through the forests!
And also Veerappan for slowing down the “development” in the area.
But the TN govt. wants more connectivity to its industrial towns to Karnataka, especially to Mysore & Mangalore, there were even plans to build a thermal power plant just 30-40 miles away from Bandipur sanctuary and it was supposed to feed a SEZ and industrial belt in Karnataka & TN!
Thanks to environmentalists in Mysore, that project has been suspended, the state and central govts. are waiting for the elections to get over to give life to the project again.
This is stunningly sensational Kalyan! Was holding onto my chair as I read through the story! Best part is the camouflage of these lovely beings against the forest dry ground!Unforgettable moments to witness all the drama! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
-Pramod Viswanath
KANS roadkill awareness program
Hi
YOu can see my
leopard pictures on
After attending a roadkill awareness program conducted by Kenneth Anderson Nature Society on the state border trying to educate drivers through the road about the importance of driving slowly, no honking, no feeding, etc, I have come to realise I am also like those drivers. Slowly changing my habits
Best regards
Bala
Hi Kalyan,
Any chance of a hi-res wallpaper size photo of the 3rd and the 4th pic?
/N
Great stuff and by the highway at that!
Apana
Re: great
7 lions?! Lol!
And all the people who pay thousands for a glimpse of a TIGER, leave alone leopards!
Re: great
Obviously, Kamala Circus had come to Kanha town….!
really incredible story and images congrats for this ?
Very beautiful images. Wow…you could see so much action there. Wonderful!
what an encounter! and needless to say, terrific shots kalyan!
r there any organizations that work locally to help authorities figure out the best place to build roads in protected areas?
Wow !!
Terrific ones kalyan…apart from the INW post I also liked the baby running away into the forest…Nostalgic abt my multiple tiger encounters in central india – but something about south indian forests which makes it even more special !!
thanks for sharing these gems
suhas
wow man. the things you see.
Itching to do something about this
Hi Kalyan,
I am a native of Coimbatore and just love the Mudumalai/Bandipur area too much. I have been pained many many many times over the years by the kind of traffic that passes through it. There are way too many things going wrong with that highway…
1) The truck/bus/car traffic and their utter callousness for wildlife, they barely slow down…they honk wantonly and drive extremely rashly.
2) I was staying at one of the dozens of resorts in the Masinagudi area recently and I noticed that the dozen jeep operators there take people onto night trips on the highway. They spotted bisons multiple times and to my utter shock they would turn the jeep directly towards the bison and drive as close as possible and head-on into its face. All for the thrills of the riders. I am ashamed to say I was one of the riders, yet I could not complain because I was too shocked at that time to see all of my cousins and family members (all educated) not really complaining but enjoying it!
I did complain back at the resort but I guess I can’t expect much from them…while they expressed concern and said they would talk to the drivers, I expect that this is what drives their business.
Anyways, what can we do? Can technology help or do we need more people based practical solutions? Surveillance cameras? Volunteers reporting violations with video/photo evidence to nearest check posts? Are the authorities interested in trapping these kind of incidents? Or do they have bigger problems at hand?
I think you and people like you are in the perfect position to discuss these kinds of issues and your experiences with it. I think you will find volunteers aplenty to help you out if only the right set of ideas strike!!
Pained,
Vasanth
Hey Kalyan! Excellent sighting, photographs and report!! I wonder when my next leopard sighting will be! Keep your blog rolling!
~Sangeetha
Re: Itching to do something about this
I think if there is enough will to solve this issue it will be solved and this has to be done from many angles. From enforcement to awareness. Its weird that Mysore-Bangalore highway has some 200 speedbreakers, but there is only one on the bandipur-mudumalai highway and that too was kept in front of the reception area. So speedbreakers, instant fines could be a good start to address the issue.
Bandipur leopard & cub sighting
Hey Kalyan
Absolutely AWESOME !!! How lucky are you to have been there !!! Pretty realistic writeup too and the pictures are wonderful !!! BTW – what camera?? Great to hear and see from like-minded wildlife enthusiasts. Hopefully we all can make a difference in time to come for our countrys fabulous wildlife !!
cheers
Darryl
your blog
The pictures you shot are really cool,especially the one of the leaping leopard cub.It must have been such a special experience to have actually seen the leopards.
Re: Itching to do something about this
Thanks. Where is this lack of will? With the forest department? With the government? Or from (us) interested people? I guess you mean everything 🙂
Awesome
Awesome shots and great to hear the wonderful experience you had.
WOW .. What an encounter..
Hi Kalyan.. I got to meet Divya(From NCF) day before, we did the usual walk..but bad.. luck no turtle nests 🙁 .. she was shocked they way the coastline had changed with all the lights, houses, fishermen settlements and open sewers let into the sea. I am sure she will have a lot more to add to this list.
About this Leopard story..Apparently Divya and I were talking about the increasing traffic and road kills in Valparai. It is a very disturbing feeling to know that forests have tar road laid right across their length & breath. In all my trips I have preferred to trek. I think trekking through it is a much more eco friendly way (its going to be tough with your equip). weren’t you adding to the traffic??(no offense meant)
I personally feel laying roads will invite traffic and to drive sense into the driver’s head is a task next to impossible, so why invite traffic?
Siddharth
Great site!
Found your site just via serendipity. THANK YOU for such a great effort. Especially thank you for the wonderful captions explaining the photos. Your work is at once both art and scientific nature photography; you blend them together splendidly.
ps: I really like that you posted 3 names on the tiger photo for copyright; the driver and the person holding the light as well as the photographer. All played a part.
The world needs more like you!
Kalyan,I have seen these leopards, they are lovely, but they look even better in your pictures – FANTASTIC, really!…Senani
Me too..
Loved the fourth pic.. too good! And these articles give a lot of insight to what happens in the forests. It is indeed disheartening to learn about this!
– Vikram
Re: Itching to do something about this
Feel that its a practical solution.
So, was just thinking about the implementation.
1. Authorities(who?) need to put speed breakers (SB).
2. If they dont, can we?(group of volunteers), permissions??
3. Force the authorities, if they dont agree on request. In democratic way: By awareness walk/rally?
4. ?
hey nice revamp of your website..
Great to see new images 🙂
-Sandeep R.
hi kalyan these are one of the best shots of the moments that make the drame of the jungle so appealing…great work.
Amazing!
Kalyan, This is an amazing story accompanied by stunning images! great experience! Thank you for sharing!Koshy
wow
whoa… how lucky you can get !
i ve been travelling in that trail so many times for a glimpse of some cat without any success.
amazing specially one in which cat is staring at camera.
~subbu