India: The Ranthambhore Fort and Tiger Preserve

On the way to the Ranthanbhore Tiger Reserve, we were lumbering along in the bus through a busy Rajisthan village when Joanne saw what she thought was a tiger in hot pursuit after a little dog. The little dog was running for his life. Joanne yelled: “I see a tiger!” Others saw it too. Raj’s explanation was: “Some people paint stripes on their dogs.” Huh? Later, our guide at the Ranthanbore Tiger Reserve solved the mystery. It was an Indian Striped Hyena, a medium sized ugly carnivore with stripes.

From The Hyena Archive

The Tiger Reserve is adjacent to the Ranthambhore Fort complex. Our first day there we hiked up to the fort and got the lay of the land. We mingled with fellow travelers and the frisky monkeys.

Hear No evil, Speak No Evil, See no Evil (Larry the Langur, Libby, and Joanne)

Our guide.

Day two centered on our attempt to find the elusive Bengal Tigers in the Reserve. This is no easy task. Today, due to habitat loss caused by deforestation, and hunting by human poachers, the Bengal tiger is considered to be an endangered species. Despite being the most common of all the tiger species, there are thought to be only around 2,000 Bengal tigers left in the wild. Where we were, within the first 50 kilometers there are three female tigers who each claim about 15 kilometers of territory and one male who patrols the entire territory, so one can drive through the bush for hours and not see any sign of one. The tigress in our immediate area had two cubs so we had hoped she would be out schooling them. It had been a few days since they were spotted and our day was much the same. This was as far as we got:

Tiger Tracks

However, the reserve is rich in a supply of other wildlife. We saw scores of bird species, Sambor deer, spotted deer, crocodiles, wild boar, and a small jungle cat.