The Old Bull and the Tiger

Tadoba National Park

If you don't know Gaurs, they are the largest bovines in Indian forests. The males get upto 10 feet long and 6 feet tall. I haven't seen huge herds myself but Huge males wandering around is not uncommon and neither is small herds with a dominant male.

We got news that 'Charger', the young adult Tiger had parked himself around a watering hole and rushed to catch a glimpse and hopefully a few pictures of the young tiger who had made himself famous for chasing after safari vehicles. He was under a tree, surrounded by bushes and thinking that he'd head for the watering hole, we positioned ourselves with a view of the area. Now Charger isn't really vehicle friendly yet and we were told that it'd be a bit of a wait if he came out at all given that there were 6 vehicles around.

Like 30 minutes into the wait and getting a couple of shots of birds in, lo and behold, this old Gaur bull sauntered into the bush area where Charger was and I, like the greedy villain scientist in cartoons was literally rubbing my palms together and saying, "Action time" !

Oh there was action. We heard the rustling of leaves and bush and Charger's growl. A few minutes passed and where I expected the Tiger to emerge from, to get a drink, the old bull sauntered out just as lazily as he had walked into the bush. He gave us this "all in a days work" look you see in the first picture and went on to have a drink at the hole. Charger had obviously exited stage rear.

That's experience for you. Horns get dull because of extensive use. Blunt force trauma, will kill you just the same.