Hunger Strikes….

Arrowhead - The current Lady of the Lakes in Ranthambhore Tiger reserve

“The Tiger is a sign of God’s most beautiful creations, symbol of power and grace, one of the most efficient and ruthless killing machines bestowed to our planet by nature and yet its seems absolutely helpless in front of man’s insatiability and clandestine motives.”

I did my first safari in the summer of 2004 where I was lucky to see my first Tiger in Ranthambhore, Rajhastan. Over the years I have travelled to Ranthambhore many times and literally have lost counts of the number of tigers I have seen/photographed here. And not just Ranthambhore, I would consider myself really lucky to have seen tigers all over the nations in these years and yet every time I see a tiger my heart skips a beat. Sighting a tiger in the wild is one thing and witnessing a Tiger hunting a prey is a totally different experience. I have seen a few hunts in my life yet this one stays etched in my mind simply because I always wanted to see a tiger in zone 3 of Ranthambhore Tiger reserve make a kill in the most typical fashion where the Tiger sits in ambush and then zips across one the lakes to hunt down a deer. After a long wait of over 10 years I was showered with one such eventful sighting. I narrate this story by way of captioned pictures of the entire sequence and links to videos.

The Plot

It was the start of the summer seasons and the water levels in the Rajbagh lake in zone 3 of RTR was receding. The activity around the lake was pretty high. I was leading a bunch of 12 year old students from a Bombay school as part of the Jungle Lore Student Expeditions, about fifteen of them with 2 teachers. We were having an excellent trip but hadn’t had any luck sighting the Tiger in the previous 2 safaris. This was our third and last safari and I kept my fingers crossed. We were in an open canter and had Mr. Saad as our guide, one of the most experienced guides in RTR. It was an afternoon safari and the temperatures were close to 40 degrees Celsius. We drove around as we reached the far end of the Rajbagh lake we bumped into a gypsy that was doing a full day safari and they told us that the resident Queen of the lakes Arrowhead had just disappeared into the grass and was in a mood to hunt.

Me and Saad had a quick nod of head and without a word spoken decided to wait here as this seemed the best chance to spot her. With years of doing safaris you seem to learn a few tricks of tracking the tiger or in this case deriving the probability of spotting one. 

There were few reasons -

1. We were told by the full day safari guys that she is in a mood to hunt and there is no better place that the lake area for hunting in RTR
2. It was peak summer and a tiger usually rests during the hot time of the day but eventually has to come to the water for a drink.
3. On the other side of the lake which is known as the island we did spot a lonely Sambar deer that seemed quite edgy. The only way it could come on this side was by crossing the lake. And this made for quite an interesting scenario.

The Wait

This was the toughest part. A safari is usually around 3 hrs long and when you are pretty much stationed in one place without much happening around the anticipation, anxiety and patience all seem to start playing games in your head. I was pretty much used to such situations but to have 12 year olds hold on to their patience was pretty challenging. I reasoned out that if we do sit patiently without making much noise the Tigeress will come out. If you do manage to talk to kids in their own unwritten language they do listen. And so we waited.

A tiger hunts primarily using a combination of three modes – Ambush – Stalk – Charge. Arrowhead who is the main character of my story and whose name comes from the arrow shaped markings on her forehead, used these three mode to a very tough yet a efficient hunt. She did improvise later using a different strategy which is why this kill turned out to be a very interesting one. I shall explain this later in the blog.

The Charge

After waiting for almost 2 hours in the hot sun, mind you the tigress was in ambush mode for even more time, we heard a huge splash in the water. The Sambhar deer that was waiting to cross the lake gave up its patience and made a dash through the water. While everyone was looking at the deer, my instincts made me point my camera towards the position of arrowhead. And that’s when I realized that she had made the charge. Unfortunately all of this was so fast and our driver started the canter in motion to follow the direction of the kill that it led to some very blurry images yet I hope they do manage to tell the story.

The Strategy

During the charge Arrowhead must have chased the deer for a good 150-200 meters. This a long distance to sustain for tiger given the fact that Tigers can run fast but only in short berths. To maintain the speed for longer distances it’s unheard for a tiger as it’s one of the largest of the cat family. But that day was a day of rule book defiance as Arrowhead sprinted like long distance runner and got hold of one of the deer’s hind legs. This is where another rule was broken. A tiger usually paws down its prey and straight away goes for the neck bite which pretty much ends the game for the prey. But to my disbelief I saw arrowhead holding on the deer’s leg for a good 15-20 minutes. And while she was at it, she was making sure to crush the bones. The spine-chilling sound of the bones cracking was something that I will never forget. See video here

 I was told by Saad, that she had made many attempts for a kill and had not succeeded. Remember on an average a tiger is successful in a hunt only after about 15-20 attempts.

That probably explains the desperation for her long sprinting pursuit to hunt down the deer.

Also she did not directly go for the neck bite and choose to break her leg first. 

This could be for the following reasons - 

1. She hadn’t had a meal since days and by breaking the leg and incapacitating the prey first was a way to ensure that when it did go for the neck bit, the deer wasn’t going anywhere.
2. It also was a playing safe method to attack from behind as this reduced the chances of herself getting injured in the process. After all it was a huge deer and one kick in the right place would cause a lot of damage.

The Deadly Jump

After almost about 20 minutes of sheers jaw strength and determination from the tigress and pain and fear of death from the deer, the tigress jumped on the deer and went for a neck hold.

See video here

We all knew this was the end for the deer.

That day I witnessed the true grit of a Tiger. For the kids this was a moment right out the television. Some were pretty sad seeing how the deer had to die but I did explain them The circle of life. Finally everyone was ecstatic and thrilled with the turn of events.

We had to click a victory picture…

Arrowhead still rules the Lake area and very soon expected to give birth to a new generations of tigers.