The Elusive Gem of the Grassland - The Indian Fox.

[Vineet Shrivastava]

Nikon P900 , 1/200 , F5.6 , ISO 400. Cropped and basic pp in Lightroom.
Clicked near a village, in Bidar on 16th November, 2020.
We sighted this beauty in Bidar after a gap of 3 years. Earlier we used to have regular sightings , but the sightings began to reduce. This time though we could sight 3 foxes. All the 3 of them were sighted in the evening , foraging for food. This particular one went into the open grasslands. We could follow it and seeing it move amidst the tall, golden grass was a treat to the eyes. It occasionally turned back to keep a check on us and survey it's surroundings. At the end we decided to stop following it and return.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Beautiful image ,and wonderful sighting of this shy creature .The morphological characteristics are clearly visible in the head turn .The dry grasslands provides a beautiful backdrop and highlights the golden fur .I would have gone in for s more rectangular composition . Thanks for sharing .

[Mrudul Godbole]

Its always a pleasure to sight this cute shy species. Lucky that you could follow and observe it for sometime. The head turn and the raised ears show its alert behavior. Seems there is some loss of details due to the crop. You can post the wider composition to show the habitat. Thanks for sharing.

[V S Sankar]

Nice pic of an elusive animal.Very difficult to spot them and photograph.

Regards

V S Sankar

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Cool sighting. Good to hear that the Indian fox has still managed to survive in that locality. When grasslands vanish many of these smaller species vanish. Keep on exploring these places as at times one can get some really surprising sightings.

How much of a crop is this? I guess the cropping has made it look softer.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Vineet Shrivastava]

Thank you Shyamala ma'am , Mrudul ma'am , Sankar Sir and Sabyasachi sir for viewing and providing your helpful suggestions. Sabyasachi sir the foxes seem to be thriving, but the population of black bucks has been adversely affected. Earlier we used to sight them in herds of more than hundred, but this time we could sight only 7 black bucks in the whole grassland. The photo is cropped about 30 percent.