The bold & curious male cub of Kuhani

[Ulhas Kalyanpur]

He is the boldest & most curious male cub of Kuhani female in Kolsa. Sighted & photographed in Jan 2017.
Gear- Nikon D7200 with Nikkor 200-500 f5.6 VR
EXIF Av: F/5.6, SS:1/250, ISO:400
Shot at 200 mm with bare minimum crop on the left. He was pretty close for my Lens. I think exposure should have been increased slightly. C&C welcome

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Innocent, inquisitive infant; fully dependent on mother. Fine details. Riding elephants were not allowed to approach infants in earlier days. Inquisitive male cub has come close to tourist track...yet, does such trait develope so early? Krishnan has given the answer in the last article. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Abhirup Dutta Gupta]

Wonderful shot..........

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Lovely picture, I heard of this cub from some friends, nice to see it through your picture. Undoubtedly bold and bright, the cub doesnt really care much as it peers through your lens. The fur signifies what mischief its been upto...thanks for sharing.

[Mrudul Godbole]

The look of innocence nicely captured. Agree with Saktida, it is rare for a cub to come so close to a tourist vehicle. It will get used to humans . I feel a vertical composition would have worked well here, than the present square framing. Is it some kind of a wire fence at his feet? Thanks for sharing.

[Ulhas Kalyanpur]

Innocent, inquisitive infant; fully dependent on mother. Fine details. Riding elephants were not allowed to approach infants in earlier days. Inquisitive male cub has come close to tourist track...yet, does such trait develope so early? Krishnan has given the answer in the last article. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

Wonderful shot..........

Lovely picture, I heard of this cub from some friends, nice to see it through your picture. Undoubtedly bold and bright, the cub doesnt really care much as it peers through your lens. The fur signifies what mischief its been upto...thanks for sharing.

The look of innocence nicely captured. Agree with Saktida, it is rare for a cub to come so close to a tourist vehicle. It will get used to humans . I feel a vertical composition would have worked well here, than the present square framing. Is it some kind of a wire fence at his feet? Thanks for sharing.

Thank you all for your comments & appreciation.

We waited for almost an hour for the mother as we had seen her pug marks. We also saw the pug marks of the cubs on the same track but in opposite direction. So we knew that the mother would surely come back to the cubs later sometime if not then in the evening for sure. Finally got her when she was returning from her patrolling & going back to her cubs. She even was calling for them. The experience of hearing such calls from the mother is something I experienced for the first time & it was mind blowing. The call truly travels through long distances. She then crossed the safari track & went to a near by nalah where the cubs were. We could hear the cubs diving & splashing the water in the nalah after the mother's arrival but could not see any of them. This tigress has a litter of 3 now. I guess she quenched her thirst & say in the next 5 minutes she came out with all the 3 cubs & crossed the nalah & went inside the undergrowth for her well needed rest. If you get a sighting at that nalah then we need to shoot with a 70-200 mm. Anything longer & you wont be able to get multiple subjects in the frame if you are lucky enough to get such a sighting. As the minimum range of my lens is 200 mm I could not get all 4 in the frame. However I have got a couple of decent images with 2 cubs which I will post shortly. There is a thin bund which runs across this nalah. This image was captured when the boldest of the 3 cubs was crossing the nalah by walking on the bund.

This was an unbelievable sighting in one of the most beautiful & dream locations in Kolsa's tourism zone (Kuhani's territory). All safari jeeps go this location. Somehow don't feel like giving away the name of the exact location online. By now I guess people who frequent Kolsa may have got to know which location I am referring to.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice cute fellow. It is always a nice experience to watch interaction of mother with child. However, one has to be careful with the small cubs. These cubs have started watching the jeeps from the childhood days and don't fear. It is not a good sign not to fear man, as when they grow up and move in search of new territory to the outskirt areas, they often lose their life in encounters with man.

From which direction have you cropped this image? Why this kind of square cropped composition? The lighted bamboo takes away the attention. Without knowing the crop directions, wont' be able to provide suggestions regarding composition.

The local drivers and guides talk with each other and through them the message spreads about the location. So it doesn't matter whether you post the location online or not.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi