Wildlife Photography

[prashantsingh]

Looks like everyone is in a bad mood.
Check out this Cheetal Stag sharpening his antlers against a branch.
Getting ready for a fight.
Don't blame him.
It's breeding season.

[357 S&W]

Very nice pictures, Prashant; I envy you now, I wish I was there. Thanks for sharing.

[prashantsingh]

Stay away from a tusker in Mast (Musth).
Check out the discharge from the temporal area of the tusker.
These elephants can be very dangerous and it is better to keep a safe distance from them.
They are at the height of sexuality with have peak testosterone levels.
I am sure Nitroexpress can give us the details.

[rraju2805]

awesome pic. . .


thanx for sharing the pic.

With regards
raju

[kragiesardar]

wow, some pictures, amazing, just amazing. More, please.

[Safarigent]

nice pictures prashant sir.
and every one else too.
great work, i had some pics of flowers et all (blushing) will dig them out and put them up
regards

[prashantsingh]

Put up your snaps Safarigent.

Here are some Birds with Talons.

-- Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:38 pm --

The Changeable (Crested) Hawk Eagle is a very interesting bird. It changes colour with the season. On page 6 , I have put up a better close up of this bird in it's winter plumage. One could never guess it's the same bird.
This one was perfectly camouflaged in the tree.
There are about 580 species of resident and migratory birds in Corbett.

[shadow]

Prashant sir tussi great ho...taufa kabool karon

Cheers,
Rup

[Nitro Express]

WELCOME TO DHIKALA
CHARGE of the (Heavy) Brigade.
Watch out the Ganesha in the forefront of the Charge.
He was barely 10 yards when I had to shout to the driver to move. Fortunately he had the engine running.
I was actually reminded of a recent Bollywood number "Bhag DK Bose".
Those who have heard it will know what I am talking about.

------------------------------------------

You will see my hands shake in the snaps. Not the best of snaps but when you have an angry animal this size go after you. Everything shakes. Lol

Prashant,
I must say its a lovely specimen.Seeing wild elephants, specially tuskers always seems to captivate me.I never get bored watching them.
The first elephant seems to be an adult around the age of 35.The elephant looks a bit under fed.Its temporal area has hollowed in.Must be lack of food due to dry weather.Once the rains come in, there will be plenty of vegetation for him to feed on.
In the second picture you can see another tusker behind the first one.When two adult bulls hangout together, It means trouble - either they have been thrown out of the herd by the dominant bull or they are out to establish dominance over a herd.Goodthing you got out of their way.
In Assam two wild bulls hanging out together are known as 'Maljuria'.
Nitro Express

[rraju2805]

Prashant sir tussi great ho...taufa kabool karon

Cheers,
Rup

[prashantsingh]

Thanks for the info. Nitroexpress. I was waiting for your comments on the elephants.
In olden days elephant owners would give their pet tuskers Opium to mellow them down when they went into Mast.


Hog deer (Para)



Spot the Magar.
I realised he was there only after it moved and opened his mouth.

[Nitro Express]

Stay away from a tusker in Mast (Musth).
Check out the discharge from the temporal area of the tusker.
These elephants can be very dangerous and it is better to keep a safe distance from them.
They are at the height of sexuality with have peak testosterone levels.
I am sure Nitroexpress can give us the details.

Wow! It's raining elephants in Corbett.Thats a fine bull elephant.
Prashant you are absolutely right.During the musth period, elephants do tend to get aggresive and turn violent.
Musth occurs in elephants during cooler seasons.Musth in elephant is also an indicator of good health.Usually, only a well nourished bull elephant will come into musth.Many a times an elephant attached to logging or forests camps donot show symptoms of musth for years.This is because they are worked year around and as a result testosterone levels are within a normal range.
The bull in the picture is in good physical condition and seems to be in peak musth period.The female is being accompanied by her calf who seems to be around three years old.She probably is in estrous and is ready to mate, otherwise there is no reason for her to tag along with a bull in musth.
Nitro Express

-- Sat Jun 18, 2011 0:21 --

Thanks for the info. Nitroexpress. I was waiting for your comments on the elephants.
In olden days elephant owners would give their pet tuskers Opium to mellow them down when they went into Mast.

Even in North East India, the habit of giving opium to elephants in musth prevailed until recently.
Now we use tranquilizers and sedatives to keep bulls in control during period of musth.Thats if they turn violent and become unmanageable.Usually isolating them from the other camp elephants tends to calm them down.Behaviour of bulls in musth varies from elephant to elephant.One of my tuskers is completely manageable during musth while another one starts throwing tantrums like a spoilt brat.
Elephant people in certain pockets of Arunachal Pradesh still administer opium to their bull elephants to keep them under control
Nitro Express

[prashantsingh]

Wow! It's raining elephants in Corbett.Thats a fine bull elephant.
The bull in the picture is in good physical condition and seems to be in peak musth period.The female is being accompanied by her calf who seems to be around three years old.She probably is in estrous and is ready to mate, otherwise there is no reason for her to tag along with a bull in musth.
Nitro Express

It's always a pleasure to read your posts on elephants Nitro. You know everything about them and work so closely with them.

It is actually raining elephants at this time in Corbett. In the winters they tend to migrate towards Rajaji National park .

Infact the tusker in Mast (by the river side) was actually with a decent group of females and calves. Here are a couple of snaps of the group.There were at least 4 adult females with him. Quite a Macho.

We saw another large group in the Dhikala grassland with at least 10 adult females and an equal number of calves. This one had 4 young fellows almost the same age. Cute little things.

[shooter]

speaking of muast/mast.masth/musth, the pet elephants in jaipur used to have a very high proportion of attacks even by mast standards, let alone in working elephants.

More surprising as majority of these elephants were from the the stock of royal and noble families which were used for the kings ride and were the most docile ctock, not war stock.

It was common to read in newspaper about elephant going beserk.
I remember so many foreign scientists coming to study this phenomenon as the attacks were (ratio wise) off the charts.
Even some scientists from discovery channel came to study this.

Later they concluded these elephants were being literally being worked to death.

Now there is a strict system whereby one elephant may be ridden only once a day.

[brihacharan]

Hi Prashant,
> Your photographs are truly a feast for the eyes. They reminded me of the photographs the great M Krishnan of Chennai had taken of elephants. Some of them still grace the walls at the Bombay Natural History Society - in Black & White!
> As a photo enthusiast myself I like your composition - it's said that 'you see a picture before you take them".
> Just out of academic interest - what camera & lenses did you use? Did you have a motor-drive in your camera? I presume you were using a digital camera.
> A suggestion - why don't you have them published in 'Sanctury Magazine' accompanied by short write-ups.
Cheers
Brihacharan