Hard ground Barasingha --Kanha

[Shyamala Kumar]

According to the locals, it seems that the Barasingha is not the preferred choice of the tiger as a prey animal, because it feeds on swamp grass.As a result of which it finds its flesh unpalatable.Canon 60D+100-400 1/1200s ISO400 FL400mm F7.1 Nov2013 Late morning.

[Abhirup Dutta Gupta]

Great image.......

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice to see the 12 (or 11) pointer Hardground Barasingha with distinctive antler in winter coat. Good that they are being released from the enclosure to Kanha open.

It was a pleasure to witness the royal turban of Hardground Barasingha (considered to be Pride of Kanha, then numbering about 67),the beauty of Chital (in hundreds) and the graceful parade of Blackbuck( 2 or 3 herds) in the Kanha meadow on elephant back during our first visit to Kanha in March 1975 when we were staying in FRH of Kanha, and were fortunate to listen to Shri H.S.Panwar, the dedicated Field Director, Kanha T.R. The decline of Barasingha was caused by artificial attraction of Tigers to Kanha meadow making at least two of them resident in the nullah (by then the practice was stopped).
This is with reference to the first line of your preamble.
Sambar is the first and Nilgai stands last in priority list amongst deer and antelopes, as far as I know but Tiger is an opportunistic hunter. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Roopak Gangadharan]

nice image. impressive head gear.

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

During my childhood days I have tasted a huge variety of shikar meat. Most of the people feel that the Sambar meet tastes muddy. However there is a trick to precipitate the mud and remove it while cooking. I think this perception has led to people believing that tiger also doesn't prefer barasingha meet. As Shaktipadaji has rightly stated, there was a practice of tying bait for the tiger so that tourists can watch it. That made a few tigers to virtually make the kanha meadow as their home. Even George Schaller had done his studies by tying bait and had observed various tigers coming and eating from the same buffalo bait one after the other (once the rightful owner has had its fill).

There is another perception that Tiger loves wild boar meat a lot. This may be because in winter people find the wild boar meat to be tasty due to the fat layer in wild boar. However, I can't say for sure whether the tiger really loves wild boar meat more than others even though I have seen many kills of wild boar by tiger.