Wednesday, January 2, 2008

About tiger sightings

The tiger is the most elusive animal on earth but for reasons unknown it throws caution to winds and comes out in the open completely relaxed, this is more applicable to conditioned tigers that are used to seeing the tourists.

Tourists’ guides and naturalists alike are not permitted to disembark from the vehicles hence active trekking is not possible. One can trace a tiger’s presence by the alarm calls and pug marks on the soft jungle roads. It is a standard practice to follow the direction of the pug marks after they have been conformed to be of recent origin. Once the limit of the movement has been ascertained, patience is all that is required. If the tiger is somewhere nearby it is most likely that it would emerge of the roads or the meadows.

In summers, tiger can be located near the water holes, while sighting a tiger in dense foliage is near impossible. Knowing about the seasonal movements is worthy of the effort.
The wild animals apart from alarm calls keep a keen eye on the predators the direction of their sight and the ensuing unease is a sure shot sign of a predator’s presence. This happens when the animal mostly deer, monkeys and sometimes the gaur has had a glimpse of the crouching tiger or caught the scent of the animal.

Sometimes just a keen sight works to catch sight of the tiger sitting at ease in the open forest or the grassy meadows. But all said and done a tiger sighting is never guaranteed. It said that you see the tiger if it wishes to be seen for you may cross path a hundred times from a crouching tiger and not see it once.

Summers
are the best months for sighting tigers since wildlife congregates near reducing water holes and tigers themselves are hard pressed for water. The concentration of animals brings tigers into open since this is an ideal time to hunt the prey species with ease. In winters just after rains the water and prey is available all around the park, which is under dense cover of trees and long grasses. Hence, as the water level recedes and many water holes begin drying up after January, animal sightings increase.

Best time for sighting animals is the early morning period and the late evening when the big cats get active for a hunt. During the noon major mammals laze under shadow or in the safety of the grasslands. The presiding scenario with alarm calls, mystery of movements and prevailing excitement is worth being part of. Tiger or no tiger, wildlife watching is fun and an exciting adventure that can rarely be surpassed by any other activity.

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