Tuesday 2 June 2015

Collar Wali and family


On 17th March this year my scrawny neck was saved by a tigress. After days of difficulty searching for tigers in Tadoba, on our first safari in Pench an elderly female tiger called Collar Wali strolled along the road ahead of all of my jeeps; and for most of my clients she was their first tiger. A first tiger is an emotional moment, especially after a spell of bad luck, and sharing my clients' first tiger with them is always emotional for me too.


Graham Nuthall's photograph, taken in Pench in March,
of Collar Wali, the first tiger he and his wife Tina had ever seen


Collar Wali was visibly very pregnant and in my last post from Asia, three weeks ago, I speculated that she must by then have cubs of several weeks of age. I learned this morning, in a text from my sister, that she has. My sister's friend Dharma Giri, originally from Nepal, is a naturalist at the Jungle Home Resort and Spa in Pench. Today he sent her this very recent video (reproduced here with his permission) in which Collar Wali may be seen with her three healthy, mischievous, tail-stalking and utterly endearing cubs.





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