Bandhavgarh day two

 Friday March 8

We spent 9+ hours in jeeps today looking for wildlife with the priority on tigers. Bandhavgarh Park has a high density of tigers, which means on average 1 in every 36 square miles... so getting to see one is truly a “hunt”. Every game drive includes an expert local naturalist/ driver from our lodge and a local guide from the Park. The two of them discuss recent observations of tigers to set a general plan for the drive. During the drive they monitor paw prints in the sandy roads, scat and alarm calls from other animals to fine tune our route. The task is made harder by the park rule that you cannot leave the established roads.  Sometimes you have to drive around the perimeter of an area that you suspect contains a tiger somewhere in its interior, and hope that the tiger decides to stroll to the edge. Our expedition leader had told us “as much as you want to see a tiger, the guides want you to see one even more.”  It is really true; they work so hard to find that opportunity for their guests. 

This morning we saw paw prints and scat and heard alarm calls quite close to us, but no tiger. The hunt for the tiger was invigorating and frustrating at the same time. To make things a bit more confusing for the hunters, there was evidence of two tigers in the area, thus alarms calls coming for different directions and tracks going in opposite directions. After we left that area, a ranger on foot did see a tigress, but no one else saw her all day. 

This afternoon we went to a different section of the park and saw/heard nothing related to tigers. We decided to hang out by some of the man-made water holes in hopes a tiger would need a drink on a warm day. We saw many species of birds, as well as an Indian Gray Mongoose ( think Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as we are in Kipling Country). Our driver told us that seeing a single mongoose is good luck, and late in the afternoon, about 15 minutes before we had to leave the park, word came that there was a male tiger at that same water hole where we spotted our luck-producing Mongoose. We probably broke the local speed limit driving (bouncing) down the trail to get to the watering hole (as did a lot of 

other Jeeps) and there he was — a beautiful male tiger lounging and dosing and drinking from the water hole. We learned that the tiger was six years old, prime tiger age.

Pictured: Bengal Tiger (of course), Indian Gray Mongoose, Hanuman Langur mother and 

baby