Indian Muntjac (Barking deer)_ Male_ TATR

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Canon SX60 HS, 1/30, f/5.6, 188 mm, ISO-800. Full frame.

Clicked in TATR on 28-Jan-2015. Barking deer and Mouse deer were the deer species I was hoping for to see in TATR as finding them anywhere in AP or Telangana is ruled out . I got a very knowledgeable guide on first day though quite loquacious . He ruled out Mouse deer right away, and said, “if luck shines we will be able to see barking deer”. Toward the end while driving to the gate, almost at edge of core, this guy was sighted on the clearing besides the road with a treepie.

I never expected that someone, famed for his shyness, will reward with his apparition so clearly for so long.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rare and nice photograph. The Indian Tree Pie has cordial relationship with some of the deer, Sambar in particular; it pulls off and consume shreds when velvet is coming off during last stage of antler regeneration. The relationship with the shy Barking Deer showing its picking up ectoparasites is simply a wonderful document. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Shyamala Kumar]

Wonderful documentation of species inter dependance.It is indeed a rare behavior captured and rarer still because it involves the elusive and secretive muntjac .Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Great to see this. I have images of treepie on a spotted deer but not on a barking deer. Nice moment recorded. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice moment.well captured. a higher shutter speed will be good here.

TFS
Roopak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Dear Saktida, Shyamala, Sabyasachi and Roopak, Thanks for viewing and sharing feedback. The Tree pie makes this image worth presentable. Light was very low, ISO-800 is the limit for compact camera to get a hardly decent image. The deer was near and I think Canon does a better low light job than my Nikon one .