Namaste from India! Denise Crispin Lazenby and Sylvia Matthews and I are currently at Ranthambore Bengal Tiger National Park.The weather is nice and very cool. We had our initial (morning) safari excursion and the Bengal tiger won the game of hide and seek. The safari takes place in a jeep with 5 to 6 passengers (see photo attached) We had some initial excitement as soon as we entered the park. Yes, park rules are very strict and says passengers must remain in the vehicle at all times, but our guide and driver were forced to make an exception to the rule as we had a flat tire! We observed many spotted deer, owls, sanbar deer, and many parakeets. We saw fresh black bear paw prints, fresh python tracks, owls, monkeys, and Nilgai. Its very interesting how to track a Bengal tiger. You look for fresh paw prints on the dirt keep trails, listen for the spotted deer and the birds to sound the alarmas the tiger moves on the ground. If the tiger is stationary or laying down, there is no alarm. I honestly do not know who was stalking who as we came across fresh tiger paw prints on our backtracking our jeep route. We also heard the alarm sound from the deer and birds, so we were close, but we did not see the tiger. The tiger lives alone and it remains solitary. Its not a pack carnivore as a lion. It likes to hunt at night ambushing its prey. The tiger usually walks and runs 13 miles per night (1/2marathon distance). There are nine park sectors and 59 Bengal tigers at Ranthambore. The Tigers live to be approximately 17-20 years of age. As they get older, they lose their smell and eyesight, thus handicapping their ability to hunt their prey. Ok, we have one more safari (an evening safari) to see if we will be lucky. I can state emphatically we are really having a great experience in India. Wish us luck in a few hours!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 07:44:22 +0000
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