Gaur Herd-Muthanga

[Roopak Gangadharan]

A toast to the future of Gaur at Muthanga Wayanad WLS. Could include the master and some of his subjects in this frame.There were 22 members in this herd.

Here is a small quiz.How many gaur calf can you count in this frame???? .....

500D, 55-250, 50mm, Ae, f6.3, ISO 800, 1/100, -1EC. Cropped to exclude some part of the FG.

Rgds
Roopak

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice sighting of a large herd. The composition is fine for me as right from calf to stockier bull of different age group and sex have been included. Our Gaurs do not like deep tree forest, here I find them in the open with the deep forest, scurbs with intermittent trees, in the background. All these have contributed to make it a good capture. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Shyamala Kumar]

Nice environmental image of a thriving herd of gaur.If I am not mistaken there are eight calves in the herd.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see this image from Muthanga. Myself and Mrudul had visited Muthanga a few years back and were disappointed with the overall tourist rally driving culture. I had seen a small herd at that time. Good to know that you could see a large herd. Did you trek?

Dr. George Schaller in his book "Deer and the Tiger" has written a chapter on Gaur and is worth reading. I especially liked the behaviour of the gaur during conflict - how one male blocks the other. Am driving for the last couple of days, so not with the book, and so tired that brain has gone to sleep, so wont be able to provide the exact quote. On first glance I thought 9 calves, however given my condition today, I will trust Shymala's judgement in counting.

How is the situation in Muthanga now?
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Considering the one in the middle which is a sub adult there are 9.

Patra sab this was made near an anti poaching camp.The situation in Muthanga is no different when it comes to the so called safari, the EDC employs local jeep drivers who are in hurry to finish one drive and queue up for the next .The safari runs mostly though an eucalyptus plantation where sightings are very scarce. There are huge crowds on weekends which come in for fun and general entertainment and along comes din, littering and unruly behaviour. Thankfully they have cut part of the safari which runs through a better terrain and are running it mostly through the eucalyptus plantation which is good .. that much less disturbance for the animals.

Rgds
Roopak

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice image of the Gaur herd. The huge bull on the extreme right is quite a hulk, nice to see a lot of calves. The peer bonding among calves is also nicely seen here. Thanks for sharing.