De Ja Vu !!!

[Arindam Datta]

The issue should never be about the extinction of any animal,it should always be about the cruelty and exploitation which will lead to their extinction.


My first shot of a red panda in wild,after close misses in barsey and neora valley, hit the bull's eye this time.
Felt this image may be worthy one to post as my comeback image in this forum,after being locally extinct for 3years.

@Singalila National Park,West Bengal,December 2016,Canon 500D, Sigma 150-500mm @500mm,slightly cropeed,sorry for poor lighting conditions.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rare documentation. Got at right moment. Nice composition and eye contact.Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Welcome back. Amazing come back post :).

Its good to see this rare species. Lovely eye contact. How long was the sighting? How many days were you there? Thanks for sharing.

[Arindam Datta]

Welcome back. Amazing come back post :).

Its good to see this rare species. Lovely eye contact. How long was the sighting? How many days were you there? Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your kind words,The sighting was pretty long giving me an ample oppurtunity to shoot over some 200 shots,but many of them were actually full of clutter from surruonding vegetations,or may be tricky lighting,i can remember it getting in a clear view for nearly 5-10 mins,then as there started a commotion as many a trekkers better called picknicker and selfie shooters gathered,it went into a thicket of vegetation...although initially when we spotted it,it was on a roadside tree on a clear area but we were just not ready to encounter a red panda,and being winter and birding activity being at its lowest we had only the kit lens for landscape mounted on the camera and the zooms in the back pack,so once we spotted it we have to unpack our gadgets,change the settings and we lost agreat deal of time in that,i still curse myself for being so foolish on dat fateful day.

We were actually on a leisure trek to the popular sandakphu-phalut through the singalila national park for 5days and not on any so much fancied and hyped expensive reed panda expeditions doing rounds in the market by oppurtunist bussinessminded pseudoconservationists, the red panda was encountered while we were coming back through the same route,which we did instinctively and as luck wud have it we were prized with this lifetime sighting.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Awesome sighting. Slightly increasing the brightness and sharpness would look great. Sighting of this species is a blessing. Photography is a big bonus. Most of the times in treks, it becomes difficult to get sudden grab shots with long lens. It is also difficult to carry a long lens hanging around the neck. So I can understand your predicament when you sighted this species. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi