David learnt that there were two female tigers who had recently given birth to cubs in Tadoba National Park. This was probably around late November 2017 & two other females had also given birth a little earlier. It seemed that a visit to see the Tigers of Tadoba was on!
David & I, plus my friend Andy, could not miss this great opportunity of hopefully viewing 3 to 4-month-old tiger cubs. So, we caught a plane to Nagpur & then travelled to Tadoba for some excellent tiger viewing & photography.
David is always networking which helps significantly in the meticulous planning NaturesLens always carry out when preparing wildlife photographic trips & workshops. This was no exception.
If you want to get the best possible viewing in the core tiger zones, you usually have to book at least three months in advance. David learnt that two of the Tigers had made their home outside of the core zones of the reserve. We therefore decided to take a gamble & arrange some of our drives in the lesser used reserve areas. We hoped this would increase our chances of seeing as many different cubs as possible. Of course, this could have gone wrong if the Tigers had returned to the main areas but we felt confident they would not.
Our gamble paid off! In reality, this was probably not an enormous gamble due to the planning by David. Most tourists tend to stick to the traditional core areas as they believe they offer the best sightings. I believe we were the only westerners in the areas where these two females were to be found, which made our viewings & images even more special.
It was sweltering hot & extremely humid. More so than Gujarat, (see my other blog post about the trip that preceded this, to The Little Rann of Kutch). But we chose this time because there would be less water about & animals including tigers would congregate more around the central water holes. It can be a difficult time to see other wildlife, & while we did have excellent views of many other species, we did not see the Sloth Bear or Leopard which Tadoba is also famous for, although others did see them. The Tigers more than made up for this though.
David & I also arranged to do a full day game drive which has to be agreed well in advance. I believe only one safari vehicle a day is allowed to stay in the park. A full day can heighten your chances of more game viewing, but it can also be a long hot day in 30c – 40c temperatures. During our time on our own in the reserve, we had great views of the dominant male tiger, Bagrang. We were very lucky as he is usually only seen a couple of days a month mainly due to his vast range.
The tigers we saw are as follows:
- Maya with two cubs about 3-4 months old.
- Sawmili with three cubs about 7 months old.
- Mavhuri with four cubs about 3-4 months old
- Sonam with four cubs about 7 months old.
- Bagrang the dominant male.
I have attached a selection of images & hopefully, this will whet your appetite to book a tiger photography tour with NaturesLens in the future.
Photograph the Bengal Tigers of Tadoba for yourself
Join us in India at the end of March 2019. Our India’s Bengal Tigers of Tadoba is a photography holiday of 7 night/8 day duration, which costs £3299 & takes place in India, between the dates of 23rd – 30th March 2019.
It is ideal for photographing asiatic jackal, bengal fox, black kite, black vulture, brown fish owl, crested serpent eagle, dhole, egyptian vulture, gaur, grey mongoose, indian roller, jungle cat, langur monkey, leopard, little egret, little grebe, red jungle fowl, rhesus macaque, sambar, sloth bear, spotted deer, striped hyena, tiger, wild pig & more.
This photography holiday is led by David Miles for NaturesLens. The photography holiday is offered on a full board, non-shared basis. Group size for this photography holiday is a minimum of 3 participants & a maximum of 7, plus David.
All the details of the Bengal Tigers of Tadoba photography holiday.
