BR Hills, Aug 2007

< 24 hours = 2 Leopards!

This trip was less than 24 hours and I have hardly anything to report — except that we saw (and photographed) two leopards on two consecutive rides into the bush! The proof in writing is below in driver/naturalist Thapa’s own handwriting! Of course, there is photographic evidence but I thought this was more genuine.

As you can see from the two leopard images, the two animals (& their surroundings) were a complete contrast. The first (an old male) was photographed outside the park at dusk. Though it didn’t reveal its full form it was not shy and just stayed crouched not far from where we waited. The next morning, we saw the second animal (a beautiful young leopard; presumably male) in the heart of the park and was extremely shy.

It shot out of its sitting position on seeing us a long distance away and scrambled down the tree head-first. It was gone in milliseconds. Both were great sightings and the contrast brought out how nature can present the same species back-to-back in radically different ways. Best,

–ramki PS: the bird images in the second page are from Hessarghatta (Sept 07). For convenience I have clubbed it under this trip.