The Tiger who went up a tree and couldnt come down-Kanha, march 2012

[Shyamala Kumar]

I witnessed a rare scene in which a fully grown male tiger cub bounded up a tree growing on the side of a steep gully about 22 to 25 feet from the ground and remained stranded there right up till the end of our safari time.The mother it seemed had left this cub and his two sisters alone while she had gone hunting .His sisters prowled below growling upset why their brother continued to remain upon the tree.This incident took place last year in march and since it was too far for my DSLR I recorded it with my Nikon Coolpix p90.

[Shyamala Kumar]

He seems comfortable for the time being watching us triumphantly from his vantage point.

[Shyamala Kumar]

The start of a little apprehension perhaps?Ooops!! this seems to be a little too far up for comfort.

[Shyamala Kumar]

That was a close call.I nearly slipped

[Shyamala Kumar]

Good heavens this is really tricky!

[Shyamala Kumar]

One tiger who bit off more than he could chew

[Shyamala Kumar]

A birds eye view of the arboreal acrobatics.

[Shyamala Kumar]

A tricky turn has to be executed.Note the instinctive sense of self preservation.

[Shyamala Kumar]

A well deserved clap on the back for achieving an adroit turn.Where are my sisters by the way?

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Lovely serial. Adventurous male cub showing its superior skill to his sisters. Did you see any Wild Dog nearby?
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Shyamala Kumar]

No Saktipadaji there were no sightings or sounds of wild dogs ciose by.You may be attributing the behavior of the tiger to that possibility.It was very apparent that the tigers antics were purely playful till he realized that he had gone up too far.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Very lucky to witness and capture this behaviour. How long did the whole scene take place? Thanks for sharing the full series.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Mridul we watched the tigers antics for nearly 30 min till the end of our safari time .By that time it was also pretty dark.We left the tiger still woefully perched on the tree.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see a tiger cub in the tree. Cubs are curious and often climb trees while playing. As their weight increases, it becomes difficult for them to climb. The normal reaction of the cub in the sign of danger would be to flee or face it (perhaps foolishly). This varies even within the cubs of the same litter. I wonder if climbing a tree to escape danger is one of those.

In one of the incidents in Bandhavgarh when the cubs of jhurjhura female were moving we heard langurs becoming restless. It was a kind of mass hysteria. The guide who was knowledgeable thought that perhaps the langurs had sighted a leopard. However, even though I have witnessed leopards trying to hunt langurs, this behaviour of langurs was even much more than that. We stopped there to see and the cubs trooped out. I guess the four cubs, though not as adept in climbing trees like leopards, can catch the langurs off guard by mounting multiple attacks. Like many of my wishes, I would love to also see if a tiger cub(s) can successful hunt langur. :)

[Shyamala Kumar]

Sabyasachi, in this particular instance there did not appear to be any danger since his two other siblings were moving around in the undergrowth below.His whole attitude was that of bravado and showmanship!:)