KING, QUEEN AND KNIGHT

One afternoon in early January, the visitors at Mukki Zone were treated to the hair-raising sight of a mating battle between two male tigers. My guests and I were lucky enough to be there at the scene. Here's my account of what we saw.

(Images and videos courtesy Biswajit and Bijit Munshi. Perth).

The Umarpani male possessively stands near Dhawajhandi female

Recently I had a rare tiger sighting, probably the first of its kind in all my five years at Kanha. Two adult male tigers were wooing and fighting over a female known as the Dhawajhandi tigress of Mukki. The specialness of the sighting was also because of its location at the pretty Babathenga pond, making the courtship scene all the more dramatic. It was like a tiger circus, but not orchestrated by humans in any way. The three tigers were sprawled across the road by the side of the pond, when we first drove up to the arena. On either side of them, front and back, were a line of Gypsies watching them in rapt excitement. But the big cats did not care and carried on with their interaction, focused on their desires and heightened emotions.

The King: Umarpani has grown to an enormous size and rules Mukki Zone

As we drove up we saw an amazing scene in front of us. In the middle of the road lay the female -- the prize. Her mate, the gigantic Umarpani male lay by her side, possessively close. His head and facial ruff seem to have reached enormous proportions this year, and he truly appears to be the king of the Mukki zone. At first it would appear he was casually lolling in the mud track and having a siesta with his partner. But on closer observation, we realized he was probably resting after a pretty serious confrontation with his rival, the young Jamuntola male, who was also seated on the ground, a little distance away on the left. The two males were tired, or had called a temporary truce after shedding some blood (which we could see in the mud). The air was rife with passive aggression, and we watched the next move with our pulses racing fast.

The King and Queen: Umarpani and Dhawajhandi female

This season we’ve had earlier sightings of the Jamuntola male, the new kid on the block at Mukki. He is sleek and handsome, and has a rash courage about him, since he’s entering new territory and is willing to take on the huge Umarpani. And here he was in front of our eyes, testing his ground. But my attention went over to the Dhawajhandi female, and I thought of her psyche. Her brain was now working overtime, even though she appeared to be in an amorous mood. Her three cubs were somewhere in the area, and she had surely led them away from these two virile males, in order to save their lives. In the complex world of the animal kingdom, a mother cat has to work hard to keep her offspring away from the father and other competing males, as they ruthlessly kill cubs, especially male ones, to keep them out of the way. DJ, as we all call her, must be a worried mother since she has lost cubs in the past to this struggle for dominance. 

The Knight: Jamuntola Male

As we were watching, Umarpani suddenly raised his enormous bulk and moved closer to DJ in order to sniff and nuzzle. For a split second Jamuntola too rose up on his haunches, and with an earsplitting roar Umarpani leant towards the left to frighten him into submission again. The female now thought it best to get up from the road and walk away into the foliage, leading the two males behind her. I have never seen three adult tigers in the wild walking together in such close proximity. It was surreal. Usually if one sees a group of three or four tiger together, it is a mother and her sub adult children. But this was just too incredible. They walked into the undergrowth and were out of sight for a few moments.

Since the road was now clear, the Gypsies drove round the bend and went ahead to try and catch the action ahead. We were now the first vehicle in the queue of vehicles, since we’d been at the rear end before. In a few moments Jamuntola came out of the foliage and walked across the road. Our driver backed away further, although there was a reasonably safe distance. You could never tell with an excited male. Jamuntola went back into the bushes again to face his competitor.

We soon heard their roars, and the bodies of the two males emerged from the undergrowth lunging at each other. After a five-second body slamming match they sank down into the undergrowth again. Their snarls and roars could be heard at intervals for at least fifteen minutes afterwards. It was nearing closing time and our driver and guide decided it was prudent to leave the scene and head back. My racing pulse slowly went back to normal. I can’t imagine what my guests were feeling, two of whom were seeing a tiger for the first time in the wild. What an initiation for them! We later heard the three tigers had separated and each gone their own way. Four days later I had a delightful sighting of DJ’s cubs, oozing cuteness like all baby animals. They are hardly the size of a German Shephard and were following their mother trustingly down the road. But soon the queue of Gypsies made them take cover into the foliage and they disappeared out of sight. I wish them a long life ahead.