Marvelous Madhuri - A Supermom of Tadoba

Dear readers, hope you all liked the Tadoba blog, trust me it was one of the best experience which motivated me to update you live from Tadoba, it was my first live blog from the big place itself. You must be thinking every time I talk about awesome experience and update on various species but no the Big Cat yet. I know this question will be there in your mind, the answer is that I wanted to introduce my favorite Tigresses “The Queen of Tadoba" in style. Let me take you through the journey in the next section to know more about this beautiful animal. 

The Telia Queen

In this section, I will provide you with the unknown facts of Madhuri and in the next section, I will share why I LOVE her the most. Madhuri a 10 years old a charming Tigres is also known as Telia female who ruled Telia dam (Moharli Core Zone) for long and handed over the territory to her daughter Sonam after a territorial fight and now she is Royal Queen of Agazari buffer zone with little four cute cubs. She came to limelight when she littered four female cubs "Telia sisters" she took care and ensured that all of them reaches the adulthood and self-dependent, today Sonam and Lara are rocking the Moharly zone with their litters. You will be surprised to know that one wildlife channel made a documentary on Madhuri and her famous cubs in the name of Telia Sisters. Now let me tell you why she is supermom in the next section.

The journey of a Super Mom 

Since 2010, she has litter 5 times reaching the count to 19 cubs in seven years and as per experts, she may litter a couple of more time in next few years. She is nothing less than a celeb supermom like the Collarwali of Pench (Madhya Pradesh), which gave life to 26 cubs through 7 litters between the year 2008 and 2017.

The 1st litter didn’t live to see adulthood, as all cubs were exterminated by Waghdoh male (Considered to be the largest male tiger in India) who defeated their father Yeda Anna. Madhuri’s 2nd litter, of 4 cubs, in 2011 was parented by Waghdoh Tiger. This litter was popularly recognized as the “Telia” sisters Geeta, Sonam, Lara, and Mona. The 4^th litter came in the year 2014 sired by Waghdoh and in 2016 and 2017 the 5^th and 6^th litters sired by Tiger Khali.  Now her daughter Chhoti Madhu is taking over the Devada zone and is expected to be the next Madhuri of Tadoba. I am extremely lucky to see Madhuri with her last two litter in the same zone, hope they will fully grow and follow the footstep of her mother. 

My Love and me        

I saw Madhuri for the first time in 2017 with her two cubs one of them is Chhoti Madhu a Madhuri in making, It was love at first sight with Madhuri because of her attitude. She is extremely bold and brave Tigress, she is known to protect her cubs from rival tigers and other wild animals to bring them to adulthood. Her fearless attitude and care for the cubs makes her the supermom. I got to know about her new cubs so I again reached Tadoba to capture her in camera, as usual, she came with her five months old cute cubs to welcome us in her zone. During the 2-day journey, she treated us with swag and style with her cubs which made our trip one the best trip. At no point, she was worried about vehicles coming near to her to click her with cubs rather she was bold enough to walk across between the vehicles without fear. I will never forget her mesmerizing eyes, fearless attitude, boldness, and lover for her cubs. Tadoba trips with Madhuri will remain close to my heart forever and will try to capture her every year Stay Bless Madhuri. Keep Tadoba rocking forever.

The grate sighting was possible only because of my belief "If you love nature, nature will love you and will surprise you with unique things"

A message of the Day: 

Killing tigers is the GREED, not the NEED: SAVE TIGERS

Author:
Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography

The DSLR section

Mesmerising eyes 

The Attitude

The Alertness

The Swag

Fun zone with cubs (4th litters)

The Watchful mom

Mom's Love (5th litter)

The kiss from Mom

The Supermom 

Cub's Love forever

Lazy evening

Ready for photoshoot

Chhoti Madhu - Madhuri in making

Rasta Roko Andolan

The carrying mom 

No photo without permission - The Celeb mom

Tandoori Tadoba

Hello friends, hope you are enjoying your holidays, I feel super as I get an opportunity to connect with you all every Sunday with new stories. As promised last week I am bringing you updates on my Tadoba visit. I am pleased to present extraordinary experience of Tadoba visit, which will instigate you to plan a visit to the forest soon. Now without adding more here let me quickly take you to the most awaited journey.

Live from the Tandoor

Today’s blog is special for me because I am providing you live updates from the place itself; yes, this blog is coming to your way directly from the forest. This is my third visit to the Tiger heaven which is again unique and more exciting from previous visits. 

The journey began with Duranto to Nagpur on Thursday after office hours, a group of twelve wonderful people joined the journey with a pledge “To enjoy each and every part of the forest and not only Tigers.” We had planned to explore buffer zone because of its unmatched flora fauna, the perception of buffer remains always on the negative side but we wanted to prove that buffer zone is as beautiful and rich as core zone. We first started with Devada buffer Zone which ended with wonderful memories. Let us move to the next section to feel the experience I had in these two days. 

Day 1 Devada Buffer Zone 

With 45 plus degree, we were feeling like someone pushed us in a tandoor but the moment we entered the forest we completely forgot about the weather. The journey started with the sighting of Picklock, Flycatcher, Drongo and many more, along with these sightings we decided to search for the King, within one hour our Gypsy driver sighted Madhuri Tigress, one of the bold and beautiful Tigress I have ever seen. She was bold enough and accustom to the vehicles and visitors, she walked with royal attitude for some time and then decided to give us photo shoot for around 30 minutes, we all fell in love with her and said thank you from the heart to her. 

After sayonara to Madhuri, we went back to the photography of birding, landscapes, anything and everything of our temple for the rest of the day where time was running like a storm. We were cursing that why the time runs out so fast, it was exit time, and we came out of the forest within the stipulated time. Wait for the climax the drama is not yet over, normally after exit visitors take halt or waits for their friends, but we decided not to wait for our other friends and we started takeoff from exit gate. Ohh dear story is not so simple after exit suddenly Rajendra Sir shouted see Tiger on the right side, we all were stunned and surprised to see Chhoti Madhu Tigress (daughter of Madhuri) crossing road near from our vehicle giving us huge surprise and wonderful clicks. Tiger crossing road outside the forest between the vehicle is very rare hence I said wait for the climax, this happened as a sudden shock with superb photo frame opportunity which was not even thought off. Now you know why I love forest so much, it always rewards you with unexpected sightings in a memorable manner. 

Day 2 Agarzari buffer Zone

Now it was time for back-to-back safaris morning and evening, it may sound hectic but not at all hectic rather it gave us the most wonderful memory of our life. Till now I have been to almost eight forests and countless visits in the forests, trust me each and every visit was unique and one step ahead of the last visit. Similarly, day two proved to be stepping stone moment. The morning was cool and better than the evening to visit the forest, this time we all were eager to see small cubs of Tigress as we had never seen such little cute cubs. Nature god heard the prayers and gave us shocked with sighting which we wanted, after spending time in forest somehow we reached a place where Madhuri was settled with Bison kill with her cubs, any guess how many? It was four cubs of around 6 months of age with her mom. 

It was dramatic sighting because Madhuri the star of the zone entered the place first and took a place for her in middle of the road, it was instruction for her cubs to cross the road to move towards the kill. It was not this much now see how the animals behave and follow the instructions from parents, each little kid entered and kissed her mom and then moved towards the food, all of them were bold enough to provide photos shoot by setting in the middle of the road. After the session, they enjoyed their family lunch and we enjoyed every single second we spent with Madhuri family. We were extremely lucky to see five of them together with such a bold attitude making them star family of the forest. 

You know what; drama never ends at the forest till the time you are out of the forest, after such a wonderful time with Madhuri family we departed to evaluate other species of the forest. During our search for other wild animals we got to know that group of Dhole has killed Sambar, we rush to the place and we saw the way Dholes were eating the kill, couple of them were enjoying the treat as it is a birthday, if you remember I had explained you in the previous blog about Wild Dogs, the scene was exactly the same.

As I always say that every visit is unique and highly fruitful, in the evening visit we again saw Madhuri family who was on tour of the forest, mom with 4 little kids was on forest vacation they were roaming all around in their zone. We also had a glimpse of three sub-adult cubs of Sharmily Tigers but unfortunately could not manage the pictures as they are part of Sharmila tiger family. This is how our 3 safaris ended on a high note which you can see from the list of species we sighted and quality of pictures we got from the temple. 

I have listed out details of species to give you an idea of richness of forest.  

List of God Gift 

Madhuri Tigress with 4 little cubs, 3 Sub-adult cubs of Sharmily Tigeress, 8 Wild Dogs, number of Bisons, Spotted Dears, Sambars, peacock, Indian Paradise Flycatcher, Tilt, Racket tailed drongo, Black-naped monarch, Orange-headed Thrush, Lapwing, Dove, Indian Pitta, Indian Roller, 3 types of King Fisher, Green Bee-eater, Honey buzzard, Cuckoo, Collared scoops owl, jungle owlet and many more. 

Note of Thanks 

Saurabh Thakekar and his team (Mumbai Travelers) for such a high standard trip, Saurabh's knowledge and love towards nature is just incomparable

Co-Travelers – One word for them - Wonderful People

Sarai Home Stay – Mr. Ashish and his team  - superb arrangements with APRATIM FOOD

Tadoba Forest Department and team – Guides and Drivers – Very humble and attached to the forest, it was wonderful to see their love and respect toward the forest. without them such wonderful sighting is impossible.

The message of the Day: Don’t shoot animals with Guns, shoot them with cameras. Save Earth. Save Wildlife

Author:

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photographyLife is Safari. Enjoy it.

Direct Dil Se Section: 

The Marvelous Madhur - Yawn time

Indian Paradise Flycatcher - Male

I am Dead - The Skul of Deer

The Temple of nature lovers

India Paradise Flycatcher - Female with Kill

Indian Paradise Flycatcher - Female

Chhoti Madhu Crossing road 

Scoops Owl

Loving mom with cub

The little one - Style Bhai

Cubs eating Bison Kill

Happy Mother's day

Wild Dog

Wild Dog with Kill

Dangerous Dhole - A Wild Dog

Dangerous Dhole - A Wild Dog

What’sup readers? Hope you enjoy reading about unique species. Let me add to the excitement, keep reading this space new thing is on the way, I will share an experience of an upcoming visit to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve shortly let us see what forest has to offer. Meanwhile let me introduce Wild Dog to you (they are also known as Dhole), though it is a dog but not similar to street dog the key differentiation is that Wild Dogs area sharp and cruel hunter, let us move to the next section to explore Wild Dogs in detailed.  

The Cruel Killer:

Yes, as the title states Wild Dogs are dangerous killers for its prey base, they hunt in packs of around four or more together, the way they plan & attack on p is like execution in a planned manner directed by the champion director. Let me explain you in detail, firstly they will go for hunt only in a group so as they get success and target has no escape route. Secondly, they spread across the area to keep eye on target from all around, if one is missing the other will take it from another place. Alfa male leads from the front and other follows the Alfa, the moment animal is attacked all Wild Dogs will join the treat to finish the meal together even when prey is alive, this is why Wild Dogs are known as a cruel hunter as well as dangerous. Now let me tell you about my experience of Wild Dog sighting at different places.

Normally you get Wild Dogs in most of the forests but the sighting is not so frequent because they prefer to move in a group to save them self from animals like Tigers/Leopards as well as to make the hunt successful. They look similar to Jackal or Wolf but their habitat and behavior are completely different. We saw Dhole in Tadoba, Pench, Satpura, and Umred, at all these places we saw them in a different manner, at one place they were searching for pray or relaxing in pond with group etc. watching group of Wild Dogs with hunt plan is a real treat, it is like creating “Chakravyūha” for prey base and attacked  the prey with a group leaving no chance of survival for the prey. I know it is strange feeling but this is how the rule of forest operates. After reading such dangerous stuff now it is time for you to know unknown facts about Dholes in the next section. Don't forget to check out amazing pictures of DSLR section

Fantastic Facts:

• Dhole has only two molars on each side of its mouth instead of the usual three

• Unlike other members of the family of dogs, Dholes have a unique number of teeth. Their muzzle is thickset and equipped with only 40 teeth (other dogs have 42 teeth)

• Dholes live in a group, called pack, composed of 5 to 12 members. Sometimes, they gather in large groups composed of up to 40 members

• Dholes eat berries, bugs, lizards, deer, wild pigs, rabbits and can hunt well on their own if needed. They also attack wild animal’s cubs

• Dholes are monogamous, only one couple in the pack mates. Female has a large number of teats and ability to give birth to a large number of babies up to 12

• Large wild cats such as tigers and leopards are the only natural predators of the Dhole, as the biggest threat to the world's Dhole populations has been from humans

Fear Factor – Dhole’s Conservation Status: 

• Wild Dog’s status is “Endangered” as per IUCN list, the biggest reason for the decline of the Dhole is human. As more humans inch closer into the mammal’s homes, they are killing off the Dhole’s food supply in the process.

• People are killing Wild Dogs out of fear that the Wild Dogs are a threat to their livestock.

• As a result, the number of Dholes living in the wild has plummeted to somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500, making it one of the most endangered species of Asian wildlife.

A message of the Day: 

Don’t shoot animals with Guns, shoot them with cameras. Save Earth. Save Wildlife

Author:
BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photographyLife is Safari. Enjoy it.

Dashing DSLR:

At Umred - Alfa Male in water

At Pench - A killer look

At Pench - A pack of five

At Pench - Relax time

At Umred  - A time to bath

At Satpura - Looking for hunt

At Satpura - search is on

At Satpura - Without luck

Dashing Darter

Dashing Darter

Dear friends wishing you a very happy Sunday, as we know Sunday MATLAB BLOG DAY so ready steady go with the new topic. Today’s topic is water bird i. e. Darter/Snakebird with wonderful memories of Bharatpur bird sanctuary. The reason I opted this bird today because Darter is a common bird and widespread but attractive at the same time it offers fantastic photogenic opportunities to create unique frames. Let us read about an experience I had with this dashing bird in the next section.

Days with Darter: 

Darters are very common and widespread due to which mostly unattended or ignored by us even I ignored this dashing bird in initial visits but I realized the uniqueness of Darter during my Bharatpur visit. Darter is also known as Snakebird because of its long thin neck, which has a snake-like appearance when it swims with its body submerged. This is what we experienced and captured in our camera at Bharatpur, one of the best moments was watching Darter dipping in and coming out of the water with small fish. For photographers and bird lovers this is one of the best time because at every single second you get extraordinary opportunity for frame, Darter coming out of water without fish with sad expression or with fish with winner expression, what a time it was 😍 awesome is not the word, check out DSLR section for dashing photo shoot.

Normally you will find Darter seating or sleep with widespread wings or taking a sunbath on a branch of a tree in mid water, you need to wait for Darter to find opportunity in water, the right moment is when it finds a fish. During our Bharatpur visit, the morning was too foggy due to extreme cold so we had no choice but to wait, we converted this time into great memory thanks to Saurabh the champion. He is our mentor/guide who always brings a different perspective of Mother Nature. 

Let me explain how it got converted into best time, as guided by the Champ we decided to seat near water land ready with our camera, we were staring at Darter like anything with a hope of some action. With long wait our patience finally turned rewarding, Darter suddenly jumped into the water at one point and came out at another point with winning strike and winning moment for us as well. This continued for a number of times at regular interval though not all the time Darter was lucky but we were on winning side all the time with unique pictures. You should connect to the nature to experience the value it offers. 

Do plan your visit to any of these forests or sanctuaries, I will love to offer help if you need to plan such visit. Now it is time to know more about Snakebird so let us move to the “Who am I” section.

Who am I? Snake, bird or Snake Bird: 

The Darters or Snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae having a single genus Anhinga

Darters eat fish, crustaceans, reptiles, and insects attacking their prey with rapier-like thrusts of their sharp beaks, whence the name darter. Another common name, snakebird, describes the Darter's habit of swimming with its body submerged and only the snake-like head and long, curved neck exposed.

A skilled diver, the Oriental darter swims underwater and spears prey with its bill, before using the bill to hold or pick apart the prey, which it then throws into the air and swallows

Darter nest in mixed species heronries where they build a stick platform on the nest tree, which is usually surrounded by water

Oriental Darter Status: 

The Oriental darter is classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List. The main threats to the Oriental darter are habitat loss, hunting, pollution, and disturbance at its feeding grounds and breeding colonies. The Oriental darter population is currently estimated at around 4,000 individuals in total but is undergoing a decline.

A message of the Day: Plant Trees - Conserve Wild Life

Wild animals and plants play important role in our cultures and the sustainability of our societies. 

Author: BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Dashing Darter on DSLR