Happy New Year!!- Leopard from Mudumalai!!

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Wishing all Indiawilds members a very Happy New Year. I came to India for the Christmas and New Year break and visited Mudumalai and Bandipur. The Mudumalai forest was quite awesome and though the sightings were less, the overall feel of the jungle was lovely. We got to stay at Masinagudi and did 6 safaris in all- 2 in Masinagudi, 2 in Mudumalai and 2 in Bandipur. The only problem with safaris on the Tamilnadu side is that they use Mahindra jeeps for safaris which are noisy and back breaking. We managed to get a camper in Mudumalai which was good enough to accomodate my family of 12people(8 adults and 4 kids) :o . We didn't see the tiger except its pugmarks in both Mudumalai and Bandipur, however managed to sight leopard, wild dogs, bison, elephants, hare, deer and also had good birding sessions.

Nikon D7k, f/9, SS 1/125, ISO 2500, 420mm (300mmf4+1.4xTC) cropped 10%. The light was low and the leopard was very far, during evening safari at Mudumalai.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Great beginning to the New year . Wish you many more such sightings . Never tried doing Safari in Madumalai because the safari Jeep's are not modified . I didn't know they had Canters there] .Was it an open one ?. If so it would be great for photography . Thanks for sharing .

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Wish you a Happy New Year Murugan!

I like this image. Your shooting height shows us the branch and its width. Normally we see the branch and the leopard on it from below. So personally I would love to see this situation ie this perspective. How long were you with the leopard? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Thanks Shyamalaji and Sabyasachi.

Shyamalaji: Yes, it was an open camper with a pretty good height, helps watch over a longer range. There are gypsies too, but since we were a bigger lot preferred the camper. I would still prefer the camper to the gypsy due to the height, in terms of rate per safari its only Rs.500 more than the gypsy. However, the duration of the safari is just 1.5hrs, we managed to get our local contact to talk to the wildlife office and got an extension of 30mins per safari only.

Sabyasachi: We were with the leopard for a good 15 mins. Since the place was crowding and we also wanted to visit a tiger kill that we noticed in the previous safari we moved on. The leopard was fairly far and it was getting darker too. Also, since the safari duration is shorter in Mudumalai as compared to other parks, one would have to manage time accordingly. The height advantage is due to the camper, its a glorified Tata suv open on the sides except for the roof, with 3 rows of seats with the last row quite high.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice to see the leopard relaxing and observing from the gazebo ! Nice composition. Possibly I am seeing for the first time a photograph of a leopard on tree in Mudumalai.
I am yet to convince myseft why leopards in south prefer treetops but not in central when wild dogs are found there too!
Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild
.

[Disha Parchani]

Looking so amazed Leopard. It is looking so cute.

[Mrudul Godbole]

A very happy New Year to you and your family :). Its great to start your new year in a jungle, and that too with a Leopard sighting :). Nice that you got it looking back towards you. I have only once taken a safari in Mudumalai, as you have mentioned the gypsy was noisy and it was a hurried round :(, so never went back there. Look forward to other photographs from the trip. Thanks for sharing.

[V S Sankar]

A fine capture of a leopard!Its good that you could see a few wild ones during your trip!

Regards