Indian wolf – a look of cool courage

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Nikon P510, 1/500, F5.9, 216 mm, ISO-400, hand held. Full frame.

Clicked in Rollapadu GIB sanctuary on 23-Mar-14. My Rollapadu visit has been a surprisingly good, and for the first time, I must say I am happy with AP Forest Department. Staff at Rollapadu seems to take pride in what they are doing and this is resulting into more sightings of GIBs, Lesser Floricans, Wolves, Jackals, Foxes etc. than about couple of years ago.

About wolf, I have great admiration for their courage, intelligence, tenacity and comradeship. There was a pair of male wolves planning for a hunt. I have clicked them scanning the potential prey and planning the trap, one of them hiding in the grass to kill while the other trying to scare a group of juvenile BBs towards the Killer. The Killer was the leader and the other one was showing his submissiveness by licking and grooming the Killer occasionally, it was also looking weaker.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Lovely image.Would like to hear more of your visit to Rollapudu visit-route, location ,staying options etc Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice specimen. The look, sandy brown colour, large skull, long and powerful jaws have come out very well. I join you in taking pride as Africa does not have any Wolf. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Very happy to see this and hear that Rollapadu is doing well. Like the eye contact and low angle. a slightly off centred compo wud be nice as well. Did you make any images with more of the habitat?? wud love to see the action images you are talking about...

TFS
Roopak

[Mrudul Godbole]

Great to get this elusive predator in the open and looking at you. Nice to know that the sightings of wolves and GIBs have increased. Nice pose and eye contact. I think a vertical composition would also have worked here. Look forward to more from Rollapadu. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice sighting. Were you in a car while shooting this? This is a sidelighting situation else some light on the face would have been great. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Hi, Thanks for your appreciation and sharing your views.

Shyamala ma'am, the better way to visit to rollapadu is to go to Kurnool and stay there from there it is about 45 Kms towards Nandikotkur, google maps gives the route. Though there is a Forest Guest house at Rollapadu, the basic amenities may become a challenge. i am planning to stay there when i visit alone during monsoon to see GIBs and L Fs. This time I stay put in Dornala as I was with family. Do let me know in case you need more info.

Sakti sir, my fascination and concern for wolves Jackals and Foxes also stem from the fact that how quickly they have become endangered while they were abundant when I was a kid. Still most of their population is outside of the protected areas. The other animal which I long but yet to see is Hyena.

Hi Roopak and Mrudul, I did take a good no of images, i had the sighting for more than 15 mins. i will post them here in general section. right now held up in Q end and Y end activities in office :-(

Sabya sir, yes I was in the car. Now, the entry into the sanctuary, either on foot or on vehicle, has been stopped, (I am very happy abt it, I had read stories about people chasing BBs in their SUVs). There are couples of kuchha tracks crisscrossing the sanctuary from where we can observe the flora and fauna.