Tigress BTR diary March-17

[Vipin Sharma]

Bengal tiger spraying urine to mark territory .
The tiger generally mark their territory with their urine. Turning its back towards a tree and lifting its tail vertically it would spray a tree with urine and then turn around to sniff it. If satisfied that the scent was appropriate it moved on and sprayed another tree on the other side of the road.
The organ in the body of the tiger is situated low, but while marking the territory they spray upwards at nostril level of a grown tiger so that other tigers can get a whiff of the scent easily. The fact that it did not mark the low bushes strengthens this contention.
Canon EOS 7D M II , Canon 300mm f/4 IS L USM, 1/1000 , -0.3 step , ISO-640 , Handheld.

[V S Sankar]

Nice one Vipin Sharma!....Good info on scent marking of Tigers.The "Level" of scent marking is a new info for me!

I have not seen scent marking as yet of a Tiger but seen one emptying its bladder at Bandipur few years ago!..That process was more towards the ground!!

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice habitat image. This is spray marking (not urinating, Sankar Bhai has noted urinating in Bandipur), shooting out the fluid - a mixture of urine and a secretion from anal glands - smelling musky. Both male and female shoot out the spray. The female may or may not be in estrus.The tail has been raised vertically for shooting out the spray at an upward angle, as usual. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nicely captured. Good details. The low angle looks good. Thanks for sharing the detailed information.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice pose. At times the burst of the scent spray makes for a good image. However, the angle most of the times becomes a problem, especially since we want a good head angle as well as simultaneously focusing on the tail. In Ranthambhore, where the tigers come close to the vehicle, a wide to medium zoom often helps to capture the situation better.

Apart from the scent spray, tigers also defecate and use claw marks. Scent spray remains for many days. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi