A Tiger Tale

In my previous post, I mentioned that each of those amazing pictures taken by my brother had a tale to tell. I finally managed to squeeze the story out of the tiger-man. This is a story of love, motherhood, murder and sacrifice..all in the tiger world.This is what happened.


Back in October 2004, when the splendour of Kanha, was ripening to its annual best, the tiger-man started out on a new assignment, tracking two female tigresses. These females were radio collared so that they could be tracked around the land. Kariam and Kali - as they were named - became a daily part of his life, as he followed it on elephant back and jeep rides all over the forest. … but now its Kali`s fate that we are talking about.Kali was named after the Godess Kali for her fearsome and secretive nature.She was a specimen of a feline and a much sought after mate.Now as is wont to happen in nature, Kali met an impressive male tiger and decided to get pregnant
Well that’s put in a simple way because tiger courtship is usually not that simple, and often two rival mates have to fight for a female. This is followed by their own intricate love affairs and mating.The affair is also a very noisy one,often accompanied by aggressive fighting especially on completion of the act . However the affair can last for over five days with several couplings happening by the hour, as the tiger-man tells me.

Tiger courtship is not however available for public display as you may have guessed, but the tiger-man, being who he is, managed to track down that too. (For those who need further info on tiger mating, it is available – here.
Also check out the Wild Life Institue of India`s pages on the tiger- here.)
What followed was a 105 days of gestation period in which Kali`s abdomen gradually swelled. When the birth finally did happen the tiger-man was once again on the spot to greet the three cute cubs.I can only imagine his exhilaration at the moment. I must add at this juncture, that while we grew up, my brother has always had a knack at being present at the right moment at the right time to deliver our pet`s babies..whether it was dogs, cats, pigs or even chicken hatching. I might have guessed then, that he would graduate to tigers!
However, in spite of being the queen of the forest, a tigress and her cubs are exposed to several dangerous threats. The tiger-man`s joy was to be soon cut short.
Male Tigers are very jealous and aggressive creatures, and as the tiger-man puts it –Male tigers have little role to play after they mate.
A female tigers home range is only around 25-30 sq Km while the male roams in around 100 sq km. Therefore father tigers are often not around to afford protection to the female or cubs..but they will often kill another male`s cubs inorder to mate with the mother tigress. This was the fate that awaited Kali too. Her cubs were attacked by another male tiger, however Kali put on a brave fight to save her cubs and succeeded in chasing away the intruder, but at a cost- she had to pay the ultimate price; her own life! In April 2005 her body was discovered by the tiger-man. She had succumbed to her injuries from the fight.The tiger-man reckons that it must have taken a bloody battle and a very strong male to kill the protective mother tigress.
Unlike lions, tigers are solitary animals and therefore when a mother dies, her cubs are at the mercy of other predators , not to mention other tigers. If the tiger man were to save the cubs, finding them was imperative. This he did succeed in doing and the three tiger cubs were rescued and placed at the care of tribal employees.
The cubs are now more than a year old. Under the care of the authorities and the watchful eye of the tiger-man they are fed with chickens and goats. He says with a tint of sadness that unfortunately, as reintroduction to the wild is not an option in India, they will have to be sent off to a zoo or safari park soon.
That is a sampling of the many stories the tiger-man has up his sleeves. I`ve been trying to persuade him to start a website to share his stories and maybe sell his amazing pictures. I would be grateful if you could leave your comments below to encourage him to do so…something like a signature campaign! Just click the comments link below. Go on.