Tigress with necklace

[Amit Gupta]

Kanha National Park, June 2009.

The tigress stops to investigate some sounds perhaps, and showed her necklace. Apparently she has been the subject of a research project a couple of years ago.

EOS 40D+70-300IS. 1/100; f/5.6; ISO 200. slight crop.

[AB Apana]

A nice image, perhaps needs about a third of a stop more light. I wish they would attach smaller radio collars.

Apana

[Mrudul Godbole]

Hi Amit,

Nice pose. Would have loved more eye contact and some more light. Surely the collar taken out the wild feeling from the tiger :( .

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I hate these radio collars as they look like dogs. I remember the first day we had put a belt around the neck of our dog. He screamed, cried and howled for a long time. So we had to take it off. Later he got used to it. I am all for research but found this collar to be very humiliating for a tiger.

[Aditya Panda]

I hate these radio collars as they look like dogs. I remember the first day we had put a belt around the neck of our dog. He screamed, cried and howled for a long time. So we had to take it off. Later he got used to it. I am all for research but found this collar to be very humiliating for a tiger.

Yeah, collars really don't gel with tigers- they do look unsightly. But we have to accept thats important from a conservation/research point of view. By the way, talking about humiliation, do you know that it has frequently been observed that the social status of a collared animal has actually been observed to have risen! Many lionesses, elephants, etc. have been known to flaunt the collar as an ornament and the other animals in their pride/herd have been found to have new respect for them!

Cheers,
Aditya

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I don't think they would flaunt it, however if there is any real study then I stand corrected. Would love to have details.

I feel very strongly about Radio collars. There has been technology where you can introduce a chip under the skin and it does a better job than Radio collars. However, I am not sure whether it would be ethically right. Also I hate the way people clip a piece of the ear of elephants and rhinos for the purpose of identification.

People put a radio collar on animals like elephants, but after a while they are unable to track. One elephant radio collared in mudumalai was found to have reached coimbatore. And this was found by accident.

We need to find out a better device and mode of tracking than these radio collars. I am sure there can be a better method if the scientists put their brains into it.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi