Jungle Stories - Ranthambhore Apr 2017
Scorching heat of summer makes all the animals to roam during dawn and dusk. When the sun comes out, the predators prefer to live in shade. Both predators and prey rest throughout the noon. The strong predators like Tigers kill early morning or late evening and drag their prey near water hole. Tigress and cubs carve the kill and waterhole with their names. Leopards also take their food to the treetop. That make life tough for the scavengers.
Scavengers like jackal are smaller in size. They always steal the food from the predators to satisfy their hunger. Being smaller in size it becomes tough for them to steal the food from bigger predators if they are guarding their kill. Scavengers do have the killer instincts but do not have enough ammunition. But the hunger intensifies the instincts!
I was lucky to see the killing instinct of such scavenger. While in Ranthambhore in afternoon ride I got to witness something unique, very unique! As we were keeping our eyes open for searching the king in the jungle, we heard an alarm call of the spotted deer. Everyone got curious as they were hoping to see the king coming out of somewhere. To our surprise, we saw a juvenile spotted deer being choked by the jackal. Jackal was holding spotted deer's mouth and nose tightly by its jaws. Its jaw was not big enough to hold the deer's neck. We did not understand what we were seeing. We were getting goosebumps. The spotted deer was still breathing and the cunning jackal was trying its level best to choke it.
But as the jackal spotted us, it got scared of the vehicle and tried to get away. The spotted deer was still breathing but had no energy left. It was struggling for its life, was trying to move his legs, was trying to open its eyes. Another gypsy came over and pushed the jackal further away. Its scare for gypsys was bit surprising. I have seen jackals walking past gypsies very often. This time the jackal had almost killed the deer but was still scared of the vehicles.
Though we pity the little deer, the jackal also had to live. Due to our disturbance, it got distracted. So after talking to our driver and the driver of other gypsy, we decided to reverse our vehicles. With agreement from everyone, we kept ourselves away from the deer. By this time, we saw some big Sambar deers driving jackal away. But jackal was also very determined. As we moved away, it again came close to the spotted deer.
By this time the deer had gathered some breathe. Seeing jackal coming, it gathered all the energy and stood up. It made a clever move. It came running towards our vehicle. With spotted deer's tail up, he had played well so far. The jackal was again scared of the vehicle and was not ready to pursue the kill. It was keeping its eyes on the deer and wanted it to make a mistake.
The juvenile deer stopped for a while but thought, it had enough energy to run away and tried to ran across the road. Mistake! A big mistake of its life!! As it ran away from the vehicles, the jackal ran very fast behind the deer. Just few hundred meters from us the jackal got held of its well earned kill.
Again we got to see a great example of the symbiotic life. The herd of sambar deer again tried to come to rescue the deer and tried to distract jackal by giving alert calls and trying to charge the jackal. This time jackal was so determined that he did not look back towards Sambar deer. He griped the spotted deer again. The Sambar deer got to know that its impossible to save the deer now. They turned their backs to the jackal and its kill. Jackal continued to chock the deer and ended its life.
One got killed, other got energy to stay alive. That's the rule of the jungle. Fittest the survival!
We were lucky to see something unimaginable. Our guide working in Ranthambhore for last 10 years had also not seen something similar before! I rate this sighting as one of the most thrilling sightings so far!
Thanks for reading! Photos to follow..
Scorching heat of summer makes all the animals to roam during dawn and dusk. When the sun comes out, the predators prefer to live in shade. Both predators and prey rest throughout the noon. The strong predators like Tigers kill early morning or late evening and drag their prey near water hole. Tigress and cubs carve the kill and waterhole with their names. Leopards also take their food to the treetop. That make life tough for the scavengers.
Scavengers like jackal are smaller in size. They always steal the food from the predators to satisfy their hunger. Being smaller in size it becomes tough for them to steal the food from bigger predators if they are guarding their kill. Scavengers do have the killer instincts but do not have enough ammunition. But the hunger intensifies the instincts!
I was lucky to see the killing instinct of such scavenger. While in Ranthambhore in afternoon ride I got to witness something unique, very unique! As we were keeping our eyes open for searching the king in the jungle, we heard an alarm call of the spotted deer. Everyone got curious as they were hoping to see the king coming out of somewhere. To our surprise, we saw a juvenile spotted deer being choked by the jackal. Jackal was holding spotted deer's mouth and nose tightly by its jaws. Its jaw was not big enough to hold the deer's neck. We did not understand what we were seeing. We were getting goosebumps. The spotted deer was still breathing and the cunning jackal was trying its level best to choke it.
But as the jackal spotted us, it got scared of the vehicle and tried to get away. The spotted deer was still breathing but had no energy left. It was struggling for its life, was trying to move his legs, was trying to open its eyes. Another gypsy came over and pushed the jackal further away. Its scare for gypsys was bit surprising. I have seen jackals walking past gypsies very often. This time the jackal had almost killed the deer but was still scared of the vehicles.
Though we pity the little deer, the jackal also had to live. Due to our disturbance, it got distracted. So after talking to our driver and the driver of other gypsy, we decided to reverse our vehicles. With agreement from everyone, we kept ourselves away from the deer. By this time, we saw some big Sambar deers driving jackal away. But jackal was also very determined. As we moved away, it again came close to the spotted deer.
By this time the deer had gathered some breathe. Seeing jackal coming, it gathered all the energy and stood up. It made a clever move. It came running towards our vehicle. With spotted deer's tail up, he had played well so far. The jackal was again scared of the vehicle and was not ready to pursue the kill. It was keeping its eyes on the deer and wanted it to make a mistake.
The juvenile deer stopped for a while but thought, it had enough energy to run away and tried to ran across the road. Mistake! A big mistake of its life!! As it ran away from the vehicles, the jackal ran very fast behind the deer. Just few hundred meters from us the jackal got held of its well earned kill.
Again we got to see a great example of the symbiotic life. The herd of sambar deer again tried to come to rescue the deer and tried to distract jackal by giving alert calls and trying to charge the jackal. This time jackal was so determined that he did not look back towards Sambar deer. He griped the spotted deer again. The Sambar deer got to know that its impossible to save the deer now. They turned their backs to the jackal and its kill. Jackal continued to chock the deer and ended its life.
One got killed, other got energy to stay alive. That's the rule of the jungle. Fittest the survival!
We were lucky to see something unimaginable. Our guide working in Ranthambhore for last 10 years had also not seen something similar before! I rate this sighting as one of the most thrilling sightings so far!
Thanks for reading! Photos to follow..
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| Jackal chocking Spotted Deer |
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| Jackal waiting for us to go away |
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| Its my kill |
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| Holding back its breathe |
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| Sambar trying distract Jackal |
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| Fate! |
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