The counter attack

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is image was clicked when the Sambar (Cervus unicolor) as shown in the previous image charged and lunged into one of the dholes (Cuon alpinus).

Previous image can be found here:
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2274

Canon EOS 1D Mark II, Canon EF 400mm F2.8 L IS USM, EF 2xII, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/50, full frame.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Wow! Amazing stuff, great counter attack by the sambar. I am surprised that with a pack of 10 or 12 the dholes failed to make the kill.
Sabyasachi you are lucky to have witnessed a natural history moment.
Please do share more images from this series, I am getting tempted to travel to the Bandipur

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice panning shot. I guess the 1.4x TC might have helped here to got the dholes in the frame too. But in such moments there is never time to change.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice attacking pose. The dholes in the left corner are part of the action but dont take the focus away from the sambar.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Praveen,
It was fabulous. You have been visiting bandipur regularly, so chances of you witnessing a scene is more. :-)

I was photographing from the top of the gypsy as the lantana bushes were blocking the views. I felt a close focus would help in capturing the expressions better hence used the 800mm focal length. Later the light became worse, so had to reduce the focal length to use a shallow aperture.

Sambars are bigger in size and taller. They were standing in shallow water. The dholes were not entering into water as they knew that they had to swim and hunt even when the water was shallow for sambars. Hence they would have tired easily. Except man, no one wastes energy without any purpose. There was a Sambar fawn as well in the group. The dholes were trying to distract the group and the dholes had fanned out and were trying to make their move. One Sambar came out of the group and attacked the dholes.

The sambar doe should be weighing about 200 odd kgs. Its hoof would have easily incapacitated a 25kg dhole. The evening was fast approaching and dholes can't see well in darkness unlike tigers. If they would have found the sambars outside the pool, then kill was certain. This incident shows that there are lots of checks and balances in nature. Else, all the predators would have decimated all the prey.

The next shot is even better. Will upload later.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi