Day 5:
Post breakfast in the morning you can take an early morning
Jungle Safari into the forests. Ranthambore is famous for its
tigers and justly so. Over the last decade, as a result of strict
preservation, tigers have become more and
more active during the day, thus giving the lie to the earlier belief that they are
nocturnal animals. More than in any other park or sanctuary in India, tigers
are now en–countered here in broad daylight. They have lost all fear of
humans and are quite unperturbed by their presence. Besides hunting in
broad daylight as well as at night, some other unique aspects of tiger
behavior have been observed and photographed. Once, for instance, a
magni–ficent large male hunted openly from the thickets on the edge of the
lakes and ran down its sam bar prey in the water. A tigress too indulged in
similar behavior. There have been instances when a tiger and a crocodile
from the lake have confronted each other. On one memorable occasion a
tiger battled with a crocodile over a sambar carcass and finally took
possession of it in broad daylight, after a long fight. It was generally believed
that tigers arc solilary creatur'eS and only the mal her's tllk care of their cubs
so long as these are unable to care for themselves, and tigresses with cubs
were seen only rarely. Here too their behavior seems to have undergone a
change. In 1986, two tiger families, one with two cubs and another with three,
have been extremely trusting of human presence in jeeps and have been
observed for long stretches of time in jungle clearings in broad daylight, even
when the cubs were but a few weeks old. The family with three cubs includes
a large male which seems to have chosen to live with the cubs without being
aggressive. In fact, this male is also seen with another tigress in the same
Bakaula nala region from time to time. Because of such tiger activities,
Ran–thambore is probably the best park in which to photograph them. In
recent times it has become a center of attraction for wildlife photographers
from all over the world. Sighting a tiger can never be a sure shot, but here
one comes as close to it as is possible. Other Predators: This park also has
a large population of panthers which are the second largest predators of this
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