Praveen Siddannavar
19-06-2013, 10:30 AM
Hunters of the jungle - This is yet another great natural history moment that I captured at Kabini recently, Dholes or Indian Wild dogs are the most ferocious hunters in the jungle. We often see them in large packs as it is never easy for a single dhole to hunt. Over the years the numbers of dholes have drastically reduced and hence as per ICUN red list of threatened species dholes are considered Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild. The largest pack that I have seen is at Bandipur (29), second highest is at Kabini (22) and the smallest is just 2 at Bandipur.
In this image we see a pack of 7 dholes who had already hunted a fawn of a spotted deer (chital) but it wasn’t enough for the pack. We followed this pack and finally reached the double salt pit, where already an action was on. Two stag’s (Male Chital) were seen in a big fight to win their mate, I managed to capture this action, and the stag’s weren’t aware of oncoming danger of a predator. Stag fights can very severe and one of them can easily die or get seriously injured and many times lose the antlers.
One of the dholes noticed the fight and made an attempt to attack, I was fortunate to make few images of this action. But the aggressive stag chased away the dhole and the stag’s escape. Later as seen in this image the dholes were considering chasing a group of Sambar deers. But dholes know it well, Sambar is never an easy prey, dholes always target fawns of a sambar.
Whenever I have spotted dholes, the jungle has come alive, and I have invariably witnessed some action. Time and again we have seen dholes being a threat to leopards and on few occasions to tigers as well. Their strength purely lies in their numbers, however if it just a single dhole it can easily be killed by these cats.
Lastly dholes have always been lucky for me, not because I spotted a cat after seeing a dhole but my images got recognition and I managed to win several awards, publications and the biggest one was being adjudged, Finalist - BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year 2012.
Camera – Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon f4 500mm
EXIF – ISO 400 Av 4 Tv 1/1600 sec EC -0.3, Full frame
Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagarahole, Kabini.
In this image we see a pack of 7 dholes who had already hunted a fawn of a spotted deer (chital) but it wasn’t enough for the pack. We followed this pack and finally reached the double salt pit, where already an action was on. Two stag’s (Male Chital) were seen in a big fight to win their mate, I managed to capture this action, and the stag’s weren’t aware of oncoming danger of a predator. Stag fights can very severe and one of them can easily die or get seriously injured and many times lose the antlers.
One of the dholes noticed the fight and made an attempt to attack, I was fortunate to make few images of this action. But the aggressive stag chased away the dhole and the stag’s escape. Later as seen in this image the dholes were considering chasing a group of Sambar deers. But dholes know it well, Sambar is never an easy prey, dholes always target fawns of a sambar.
Whenever I have spotted dholes, the jungle has come alive, and I have invariably witnessed some action. Time and again we have seen dholes being a threat to leopards and on few occasions to tigers as well. Their strength purely lies in their numbers, however if it just a single dhole it can easily be killed by these cats.
Lastly dholes have always been lucky for me, not because I spotted a cat after seeing a dhole but my images got recognition and I managed to win several awards, publications and the biggest one was being adjudged, Finalist - BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year 2012.
Camera – Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon f4 500mm
EXIF – ISO 400 Av 4 Tv 1/1600 sec EC -0.3, Full frame
Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagarahole, Kabini.