Female Nilgai taking a snack - Pocharam WLS, Medak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Nikon P510, 1/250, F4.9, 107 mm, ISO-140, cropped to magnify the animal.

Clicked in Pocharam WLS, Medak , on 18-May-14. This female was with 3 sub-adults and all of them were enjoying the nature's fruit when we arrived on the scene (to our amazement and their annoyance). My first Nilgai photograph.
For some reason Nilgais are quite rare in this part of India. It’s a wonder to me when I hear and see the images Nilgais in abundance in UP, Bihar etc. inhabiting non-forest areas.

[Mrudul Godbole]

The low angle looks nice. Good eye contact and details. Which fruit is that? I think a bit more space all around would have also worked to show more of the habitat. Thanks for sharing.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Lovely close up.Agree with Mridul more space all round with a little more display of habitat would have added greatly to the composition.Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good to see a Nilgai feeding. It is always good to see images of animals from different geographies. Some more space at the left and bottom would have been better as there is hardly any separation between the hoof and the frame edge. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Dear Mrudul, Shyamala and Sabyasachi, thanks for sharing your views and feedback. It’s highly valuable for me as it, in part, gives me motivation to share an image.

The low angle was incidental and the Nilgai with sub adults were at a higher ground than the kuchcha road. When we took the turn and came face to face with Nilgais, they looked at us for sometime and didn’t make a move, though they were quite close. The female Nilgai dropped the fruit it was trying to chew, it must be a hard shelled fruit , may be a Bel . Slowly they start moving, female Nilgai again dropped the fruit, bent to pick it up, and I clicked. Finally she moved out of sight and kind of swallowed the fruit.
I have photos of entire sequence but most of them are front views of the Nilgai. I had to crop it from bottom and right to diminish the black right hand corner that came into photo due to my car’s side view mirror, I was shooting through the passenger window. I got one good front shot of big Nilgai and one side shot of a sub-adult Nilgai that I may post it here.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice pic subash .good to see a nilgai from pocharam ....
Tfs
Roopak