Nilgiri Tahr Resting

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nilgiri Tahr: Nilgiritragus hylocrius

It is classified as endangered in the IUCN redlist.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II, Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS lens at 95mm, ISO 400, f5.6, 1/200, EV: +1, hand held, full frame. It was drizzling and light level was very low. I could move in very close by crawling. It shook its head in the mock charge manner as I was close. I had to back off as I didn't want to be thrown off the cliff. Their forehead is very strong and these adults can give a mean punch.

Look forward to your comments.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Kiran Ghadge]

95mm is close :) punch could be nasty....
anyways gr8 effort, everything looks perfect techinically.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice composition.Would have loved the head turn a bit towards you. The wet grass gives a good feel. Nice image.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Lovely image. Excellent portrayal of the animal in its habitat. Lovely compo too. Agree about the preferred head turn, but only slightly.

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice image... I like the wet feel of the image... the clouds, the dew and the overall white give a feel of the altitude and its habitat...
Good shot...

The punch would have been nasty I'm sure... :P

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

lovely picture...
beautiful composition.....
though i wonder what wud have happened if it did land that punch to you.... :D

[Sagar Patil]

Hi Sabyasachi,

Is this the same place in South-Western Ghats. Can't recollect the exact name.
It is at the attitude of around 7000 ft. This place is known to be challenging for habitat and these animals are adopted will in this.

Yesterday I saw on Discovery "Colours of India", A wild life photographer SANDESH from Bangalore has spotted an unusual and unidentified cat in this area.

Can you give more details about this place?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sagar,
He is supposed to have seen an unusual cat ten years back in daylight near the Anaimudi hills. Thanks to Discovery, that is now news. It is possible to find new species of ambhibians etc, however, a new large mammal find seems to be hard to believe. A sketch based on the descriptions has been shown by BBC. That is more likely to be a leopard, probably melanistic than a new species.

You can have coimbatore as the nearest rail head. You can go there from munnar as well.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi