There is no question about whether or not it was worth getting up early this morning and departing just as the sun was beginning to rise. The preserve area has 20% that tourists are allowed in, and not the other 80%. That area in turn is divided into five areas with the route that morning/afternoon determined by lottery on arrival. There are about 50 tigers in the area (20 females/30 males). All are tracked (no collars or chips) and are named and numbered. The three we saw today were one older female (T19) and two of her three offspring from her last litter being about 24 months old at this time. Since adult tigers can be more than 200 kg in size I can understand why they are recognized on the basis of markings. Those markings (or occasional behavior patterns) have also led to common use names. The three in that litter are known as Arrowhead, Lightening (the two females named for markings on faces and legs) and the male is known as Pacman (yes, he does eat…)
So this morning we saw tigers (these are two – the third was lying down in the distance and mostly what we saw was white belly)
The afternoon – not so much. It was bird and deer time which for me was just as fine (and surprisingly only four of the 16 decided that they weren’t going to come along). So we had Sabur and spotted deer
and the birds – from eagles through robins to various parakeets to silly Peacocks settling down in trees for the evening…
Also to be noted – since this area was once one of the local king’s preserves and hunting areas located right below his fort on the hill
there are also a number of temples, stone walls, memorials and other buildings along with trees and whatever else caught my fancy
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- one of three manmade lakes
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- banyan trees
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- banyan
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- gun tree (no not native – thank the Brits
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- Eufonia???
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- temple
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- sunset
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- old memorial building with 32 pillars
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- and the safari bus
