..A flying blur of stripes, face slamming into metal, a slap that sounded like a tree snapping, it all happened in a couple of seconds! The jungles sometimes bless you with experiences that are over in a flash but keep replaying in your mind for a lifetime! This was one of those amazing moments in the wild!
It was an unusual morning for the month of March. There had been torrential rain most of the night, but thankfully it had stopped in time for us to leave for our safari at 6:15am. We were around 5 minutes late that day but everything in the wild can turn out to be a blessing in disguise. We were not even a kilometer from the forest rest house when I noticed a medium sized doe walking up a slope on the track ahead. It seemed a bit nervous but I guessed it was because of us approaching.
As we drew up alongside the deer, it took one step to the side and hopped up onto the hillside to our left. It was now right beside the rear seat of our vehicle. That is when all hell broke loose! I was still watching the deer, when a large face appeared through the grass just ten feet ahead of us to the right. It was a tigress! It had its front paws up in the air and looked totally ready to leap! The experience of our driver Majid made his reflexes kick into action and he slammed on the brakes. If she leapt now and we continued at the present speed, she would definitely land on us!
As my focus was still on the deer, the vehicle’s sudden halt made the right side of my face smash into the heavy metal roll bar! I knew immediately that something had stepped out in front of us. I thought it must be another deer. Still recovering from my face’s collision, I saw out of the corner of my eye a flash of orange and black stripes! This was accompanied by Majid’s voice saying Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! The leap must’ve been around 15 feet long and around 4 feet high because I saw it over the hood of the vehicle. My body had just about started responding to the flash and as I began turning my head to look directly at the superman impersonating tiger, it paused for a very brief moment near the front left corner and then leapt again.
The flash now took on an amazing form a tiger flying past my eyes! This is no exaggeration. It was flying! This second leap landed it right on the deer no more than four feet from us. The tiger during the leap, extended its right leading paw out to the side, claws exposed for action! The deer had also just started to react to the vehicle braking, my face hitting metal, the loud scream of tiger-tiger-tiger and the sight of the orange blur approaching. It turned back towards us and its front legs had just taken off in a reflex leap when it was delivered the slap of its life! I don’t remember seeing where exactly the tiger’s paw hit but it sent the doe flying, with tiger attached, back down onto the track it had just jumped up from!
In that blur of motion, while both creatures flew through the air, the tiger amazingly managed to find the neck of the deer, clamp it in its jaws and do something midair because by the time they landed, the deer had breathed its last! The two lay on the track no more than five feet behind us. Finally the camera lens caught up with the action and we began clicking away. With adrenalin pumping through every vein in the body, I tried my best to keep the hands steady and click away. In my mind, I was already thanking Mother Nature for the experience. Thank you – thank you – thank you! I had heard of big cats in Africa using vehicles as cover regularly to get closer to prey, but we had now witnessed an amazing hunting mother, with four sub adult cubs to feed, use this same opportunistic tactic! She had timed her attack perfectly for when our vehicle blocked the deer’s vision from seeing the approaching predator!
As we watched, totally awestruck, overwhelmed and even more in love, she picked up the deer and jumped up the hillside to go conceal the catch in the bushes to feast on later with her family. Perfect hunter, perfect mother. I can’t thank her enough for letting us observe from such close quarters a moment in the day of a gorgeous truly wild tiger!