Tiger in Lantana bush

[Deepak Ramani]

The Lantana today is an over-whelming presence in our forests. A weed introduced into India by the British, it is slowly replacing the native undergrowth of our forests. And with none of the herbivores consuming them, they are just using up vital nutrients in the soil that would be otherwise be available for an edible plant.
But when a tiger sits like this under a beautiful canopy of a Lantana bushes and flowers, you might be forgiven for thinking positively about these weeds.

Eq used: Canon 7D, 300mm f4 IS
Place: Bandipur
PP done: 30% crop, levels/saturation adjusted and sharpened a bit.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice habitat image. Colour contrast looks nice. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Liked the way the tiger is surrounded by the colourful flowers. Nice pose and good eye contact. Looks like a big male. Which male is this? Thanks for sharing.

[Shyamala Kumar]

I Like the sense of restrained aggressiveness conveyed by the look in the tigers eyes .Clearly an assertive male.The lantana flowers can easily lull one into forgetting the power and danger of the animal it is so beautifully framing.Indeed a rare combination.TFS

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Two indicators of the health of the habitat come to gather in this nice image. we are micro monitoring one with numbers , names , high powered committees, what not. while the other a negative indicator is completely off focus.. but as deepak says sometimes its is better not to bother of scientific realities and instead enjoy the lovely scene...

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice scene. The tiger looks healthy. There seems to be some loss of details. What was the shutter speed and ISO? A 1.4x tc would have been of help here. Were you handholding?

The challenge of invasives increases every year. The impact of economy is more than 11 billion dollars. Recent study may increase the amount further. I am sharing the link to the IndiaWilds Newsletter Vol. 3 Issue X (Oct 2010 issue) where we had covered the challenge of invasives. http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/indiawilds-newsletter-vol-3-issue-x/

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Beautiful.... Like the settings here...

[Deepak Ramani]

Thank you all for your comments.
Sabyasachi, the tiger is dripping wet. I have images of water dripping off its face. It might be one reason why it seems somewhat soft. But I did handhold it in dull weather. So not sure now.
Mrudul, this male has not been sighted before and after this sighting. At least a month now since that sighting.