A rising mercury offers splendid wildlife viewing

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat
Quarterly Update: by Imran Khan

As the mercury rises, Corbett’s safari timings have also changed accordingly.  Early mornings and late evenings are pleasant and one can stay in the park for a longer time during the peak hours of activity of the forest’s denizens.  Even as the wheat crop gets harvested from the farmlands surrounding Corbett, various fruiting trees like mango, litchi and Phyllanthus emblica (amla, or the Indian gooseberry), have started flowering, providing additional food sources to both insectivores and frugivores.

Meantime, many of the man-made water holes have been refilled, while several more are being created for habitat management. The scarcity of water has been felt all over the Bijrani and Jhirna tourism zones as a number of waterholes have dried up and animals living on the peripheral range of CTR tend to move closer to human habitation.  Infact, tiger sightings have been regular as most of them have chosen to remain in the vicinity of waterholes.

There are several noticeable changes to the forest cover as well, with the topography changing colour from green and brown to light green, indicating leaf fall in many species of tropical trees and the associates of Sal. Some of the species such as Indian Laburnum, Ebony trees and a large variety of ficus have started growing new leaves, providing fodder to wild elephants, primates and other herbivores.  Much of the ground vegetation, comprising the Indian Curry leaf, Clerodendron and Ageratum, among others, have started flowering and now sport a new coat of tender leaves, instigating butterflies to start looking for the nectar.  One can see several butterfly species, including the Common Tiger, Common Grass Yellow, Blue Pancy and the Evening Browns fluttering on the lower strata of the forests.

This also is an important time for birders, as several species descend on the Corbett landscape from peninsular India and the Himalayas for breeding and feeding purposes.  Peninsular arrivals include the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Blue-tailed and Chestnut headed Bee-eaters and the Indian Pitta, while various cuckoo species fly in from their Himalayan perches into Corbett to breed. The beautiful long-tailed Paradise Flycatcher, ready to breed, and the rufous males with shorter tails, learning to breed, offer excellent photography opportunities.  Nightjars too have come out of their hibernation and one can hear them often, its call similar to the sounds of a wind mill in flow. Most species of Raptors, or birds of prey, begin to establish their territories with loud calling sounds. Even as the males establish territory, the females are courted for the breeding season that begins with the onset of the monsoon in July. Various other bird species, including the Spangled drongo, Golden oriole, Indian roller and Leaf bird, have started pairing up and will begin to breed over the coming weeks. 

Corbett's Platinum Jubilee begins, Imran Khan

2011 marks Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Platinum Jubilee year that commemorates India’s pioneering wildlife conservation effort of establishing Asia’s first protected forest in 1936.

For the first time since Project Tiger’s inception in 1973 an India-wide survey reveals a marked increase in tiger numbers. A 12% rise to around 1800 tigers from 1411 in 2008, despite an overall shrinkage of habitat by 6%, is good news. However, this demands a greater push toward scientific management of the reserves as well as better relations with peripheral human settlements. This may only be possible with the intervention of chief ministers of the 17 tiger states in the country.

The Corbett landscape has been in the limelight recently, especially because of increasing tiger numbers, rising levels of man-animal conflict and a sizeable increase in the number of tourists and tourist facilities operating without a wildlife tourism policy. Positive and wider awareness about conservation at the grass root level, while building up of a strong political will for the tigers may be the main ingredients toward a successful celebration of Corbett’s 75 years of existence. The greatest inspiration comes from the sightings of around 25 - 35 cubs, caught on camera via camera traps laid across the sanctuary.

With the launch of Corbett’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, a number of events have already taken place:

* A tiger monitoring and conservation workshop, held in New Delhi and Dhikala, was attended by some of the greatest field workers, including Dr George Schaller, an authority on big cats and their habitat management; Dr Siedenstiecker, a leading gene biologist on big cat inbreeding and possible repercussions, and a plethora of government and non-government representatives. The outcome of the workshop was to refocus emphasis on foot patrolling, beat management, wide use of camera traps and monitoring of the pugmarks.

* A workshop titled “Tourism & Tiger” with active participation from local politicians, villagers, print media and forest personnel, which resulted in positive and constructive discussions on responsible and irresponsible tourism. The end result of the daylong discussions suggested that responsible tourism is the best tool for conservation.

* A World Bank team of tiger conservation experts from U.S.A., Australia, England and Italy visited Corbett and discussed funding opportunities for better conservation techniques. During their discussions at Jim’s Jungle Retreat, we presented ideas on promoting ecosystem farming to give land back to the tiger for its forest corridors.

Other events will occur through the year in Dehradun and Corbett. By November 15 the Prime Minister is expected to close the year-long celebrations with the launch of a coffee table book on Corbett.

CORBETT IN WINTER

Place - Jim's Jungle Retreat

Quarterly Update - Imran Khan

One of the heaviest monsoons in recent memory set us up for a severe winter. While it can be very cold during safaris, winter probably is the best time to view Corbett Tiger Reserve: its multitudinous landscape of varying habitats, floral and faunal features, offers itself in a spectacular way, with incredible wildlife sightings of the tiger, leopard, elephants and hundreds of birds and butterflies. The late September monsoon showers were excessive this
year, unfortunately, and caused severe damage to the road networks inside the park.

Several roads in Bijrani and Dhikala tourism zones which had washed away are now being repaired, slowly returning the entire tourism zone to its pre-monsoon status. The water level of Ramganga reservoir in Dhikala tourism zone also is receding now, while the devastated Sambhar Road is finally returning to its preeminent status as a prime ecotone area between river and forest for large mammal and raptor (birds of prey) sighting.

There has been a salubrious effect of the late monsoons however. In the drier regions of the park, several of the water holes continue to retain water, thereby playing a vital role in the early pairing of tigers in Bijrani as well as Jhirna. This pairing movement of the male and female has led to an increase in tiger sightings, as a pair of animals is more easily exposed by the ever-vigilant prey that give alarm calls to warn others.

TIGERS ABOUND, BEARS SHOW UP

In Jhirna, a female with three growing cubs has been active and regularly sighted. In fact, we have had incredible tiger sightings at either the Bijrani or Jhirna zone over the last two months, with nearly 85% of the retreat's visitors having seen a tiger or two!

During interactions with the Corbett research team responsible for laying camera traps to establish the tiger count here, I was informed there are around 20-25 cubs with their mothers in Corbett today, which is an incredible adult-to-cub sex ratio for any single reserve in the entire distribution range of the tigers!

Tiger, Bijrani Photo: Majid Hussain

Meantime, the Tendu, Ebony or Beedi leaf tree and Jungle berries (ber) have started fruiting and there have been regular sloth bear pug mark and droppings seen at to these groves. Most deer, especially the spotted deer variety are in their prime velvet stage of their antler growth and the rubbing off their antlers against the trunk of the trees and bushes has started. You will notice a distinct redness to  tree trunks at a height of about three to four feet where the antlers have been.

Jhirna over the years has attained the distinction of harboring a resident elephant population and nearly every safari has sighted these gentle giants, with many baby elephants now part of the larger matriarch-led group. 

Tusker at Jhirna Photo: Daleep Akoi

BIRDING TIME!

Corbett's bird life is especially worthy of spending time here now. The park is a cacophony of birdsong. Thanks to the fruiting of various ficus species such as Ficus glomerata, Ficus elastica and Schleichera Oleosa or Kusum one can see several mixed flocks of Minivets, Grey-headed canary flycatchers, Bronzed-winged drongos, Verditer flycatchers,  Grey-capped pygmy woodpecker, Common woodshrike, both species of Nuthatches and the Grey-hooded warblers. 

Blue-tailed bee-eater, Merops philippinus. Photo: Daleep Akoi

Chestnut-headed bee-eaters and Blue-tailed bee-eaters have gone back to their parent habitats while the Blue-bearded bee-eaters have arrived for breeding. The blue-bearded bee-eater is one of several top forest canopy species, along with two species of leafbirds, while the Oriental pied hornbill and Great hornbill have started “gackling” their casks, indicating the onset of breeding. One can see flocks of them on safaris in Jhirna.


Mid-canopied birds such as orioles and woodpeckers have also started breeding. All three species of orioles including the Corbett-specific Maroon oriole are heard on the jeep as well as on walking safaris. The three species of the flameback woodpecker and other mid-sized woodpeckers have paired for breeding too. Constant vocalisation and fluttering in the trees will point their presence to you.

Brown-headed Stork-billed Kingfisher, Pelargopsis capensis Photo: Daleep Akoi

One of our guests has captured a picture of a Black stork perching on a tree, unique, as they are usually seen on riverbeds. The Ibisbill has been sighted regularly along the Kosi river on the eastern periphery and this season there have been two individuals roaming the river bed, unlike the past where only a solitary bird was sighted. Among the raptors, the Pallas’s Fishing eagle and the Changeable hawk eagles have been seen with chicks.

Meantime, I was made privy to an interesting sighting by a regular visitor to Corbett: It is very unusual for a Pied kingfisher to make its nest at this time of the year, but surprisingly there was not one but two adults sighted, fluttering about building a nest close to Dhangarhi Sot around 10 days ago. To our greater surprise, these nests weren't being built to rear more young, but to teach existing youngsters the art of building a perfect nest!

A purple affair

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat

Time: December 8, 2010

Photostory: Majid Hussain

“I was walking on the path connecting cottages 1 and 12 that stand opposite each other. I noticed a Purple Sunbird sitting on one of the trees in the wooded area there.

A Purple Sunbird in eclipse, Majid Hussain

A Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) isn’t a rare sight at the retreat. They’re very active in the morning atop the powder puff bushes and elsewhere on the property. This bird’s colors however seemed rather unusual. The yellow on it was striking! I thought it could be a new visitor!

I took a picture with my camera to record what I though might turn out to be a new species at the retreat. On referring my bird book later that day it became clear that the bird was indeed a Purple Sunbird, but in a very rare eclipse stage. (The eclipse is a brief post-breeding plumage adopted by males.) There were at least five different colors on this beautiful bird.”

His majesty's grace, a moment to witness

Area: Bijrani, Overnight stay

Naturalist: Majid Hussain

Date: November 2010

We received some exciting news from Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Bijrani zone earlier in the month and a fantastic photograph to accompany it! Majid Hussain, our naturalist and assistant manager, hosted the retreat’s guests at an overnight stay in Bijrani’s forest bungalow. Unique to Corbett, forest lodges for tourist stays are available across the park’s tourism zones. These however need advance booking and organization, which Jim’s Jungle Retreat arranges for its guests for a thorough forest-entrenched jungle experience.

Day ONE of their stay, at around 6:30 AM on a late November morning, the guests and Majid set out on the road to Malani for their morning safari. Roughly 2kms from the bungalow they had spent the night in, the naturalist accompanying them, Basant, noticed fresh pugmarks of a “smallish male tiger” traversing the forest road for a good 100 meters before suddenly disappearing into the bush.

I reprise here what Majid tells me: “Basant was of the opinion that the tiger had only recently moved into the bush and was sitting somewhere in the grassland close to the track. We waited for at least an hour for any movement within the bush. The jungle seemed silent for a while as we waited.

Grace on the Malani Road, by Majid Hussain

Our patience was immense since our knowledge of the tiger’s whereabouts contained fresh inputs from the forest rangers and guards, who had informed us the night before of two in-oestrus females in the area – meaning they were ready to mate, and were heard these last few days calling out to other tigers. We were very certain that the grassland to our left contained at least one of the females as the mating calls the night before had been loud and continuous!”

All the more reason to wait where we were. Suddenly a sambar stag set off a loud alarm call on the Jar Pahar road, further up from us, near waterhole number 4. We stealthily crept up in our jeep to see what the sambar was alerted by. We got there just in time to see a beautiful female cross the road, and into the bush. We waited there, hoping she might step out on the road again, when another alarm call sent us reeling back toward the destination we had just come from, certain that the male we had been tracking was also on the move.

As we pushed back towards our original point, the moment was rewarded with a large male tiger moving out of the bush to occupy the track in front of us. Majestic, this tiger was not shy as he walked the length of the road, comfortable with the fact that we were following in our jeep.

He walked for a good 300 meters on the dirt track. We were blessed for this solitary moment with the tiger. The continuous alarm calls by cheetal and sambar unfortunately also directed other safari vehicles towards the tiger and us. For as soon as they arrived, the tiger chose to cross into the jungle, not to be seen again that day.”

Monitor Lizard’s death dance with a King Cobra

Place: Bijrani, Corbett Tiger Reserve

Photos: Manik K Harika

Text: Daleep Akoi

We had reported earlier in the summer the curious incident of two reptiles entwined in a death match: that of a Monitor Lizard of about 3 feet in length and a King Cobra, possibly one of the largest specimens recorded in Corbett Tiger Reserve, at around 20 feet if not more.

A monitor lizard, roughly the same size as the one preyed on by the cobra

The story comes to us from Ms Manik K Harika who was staying at the retreat June 12-15 earlier in the year. It was the afternoon session on June 14 – a safari to the Bijrani zone that fetched these amazing moments, captured on camera and reproduced here.

June 12 was a hot day, though the forest road was well shaded by the overhanging branches of Jamun and Haldu, offering some respite from a heat that had been threatening to turn the day into a scorcher. The jeep contained four passengers: the driver, a naturalist and the two camera-laden visitors from Delhi, zoom lenses open, their fingers ready on the clicker.

The lizard went down quickly!

A right turn from the Bijrani Forest Rest House crossing and soon they were upon a road veering into a jungle thicket. They had traveled about ten minutes when the party found itself upon a sight so strange that none could form words nor express their horror at what was unfolding before them.

A close up reveals the different scale patterns on the two reptilian species

On the side of the road, by the exposed roots of a tree, lay a giant cobra convulsing, its scales moving to expand around the body of a prey now unable to offer any resistance. The troupe of four looked on as though in a trance, unable to peel away from this exhibition of incredible motion: the body of the snake in a vice-like grip, swirling about a reptile now limp, its oxygen depleted, its body emasculated.

The photo series reveal how the cobra swallowed an entire monitor lizard, nose to tail, in not more than 15 minutes!

The lizard-snake encounter was not the only excitement their adventure was to offer. Manik and her friends also witnessed an incident just as unusual and strange on a different day and in a different part of the forest. Another unusual display of jungle behavior was evident when they found themselves upon a cobra successfully trapping its predator, a serpent eagle, which had just dropped from the sky to airlift it for a treetop meal.

In possibly the biggest shock the eagle would receive – its character so used to piercing a writhing serpent with its talons - that the tables would turn so suddenly and decisively was indeed an important lesson for the bird, even if it was its last. With one delayed thrust from the eagle’s claws, the cobra pressed an advantage it didn’t have over the bird earlier. And with the eagle’s momentary lapse in judgment, the snake, which a few minutes ago was to be its meal, found itself a bird for dinner instead. (No cameras were taken on the safari unfortunately; photographic evidence is therefore unavailable.)

The entire length of the cobra is in evidence here

In this jungle, with over 50 mammals, 33 reptiles and over 550 birds, there’s always some twist in the tale.

The Curious Case of an Orphaned Cub

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat
Time: May 2010
Story & Photos: Jaspreet Singh

It was deathly silent that evening, the first week of May. I was sitting next to the swimming pool at Jim’s Jungle Retreat, enjoying the slight nip in the air when around 9:30 pm the silence was broken by the piercing alarm calls of a cheetal, in feverish staccato.

Alarm calls - when an animal senses danger or is in distress - don’t surprise us very much; they’re a common, often nightly occurrence. But this call seemed special – the animal seemed particularly distressed and the calling came from that part of the forest that touches the retreat’s eastern solar-electric fence.

Solar Electric Fencing around the property

The calls went on for a while and then ceased, returning the night to the sounds of a nightjar and insects. I felt certain a predator had succeeded in making its kill.

The southern peripheral area of Corbett Tiger Reserve where we’re located gets very dry after March-April and I remembered a story from a staff member who was employed when the retreat was under construction that a leopard had visited a small water hole beside the property on a nightly basis some two years ago.

Could this alarm call be the result of that leopard on a hunt?

I couldn’t sleep very well that night, eager for the morning to come and make my own discovery. I was happy to see fresh pugmarks the following morning, a trail extending 100 meters along the solar fence. The pugmarks’ size indicated a large predator all right, but which one? They were neither too small for a tiger nor too big for a leopard. It could be either!

How was I going to correctly establish this predator’s species? There weren’t many clues for me to make a solid ID that day. But it became a regular habit of mine thereafter, to follow the pugmarks whenever they appeared again, which they did several times. I began keeping a record of the movement of this elusive predator – tracking the time and route the animal took. Being able to see it, however, seemed increasingly to me a game of chance.

Finally, two weeks later news came from one of our drivers that a tiger cub was sighted crossing the main road barely 600 meters from our retreat! This was it! The clincher. A sighting had been confirmed in the very area that I had seen the pugmarks. But something worried me still. Why was this youngster patrolling the area alone? A young adult is still considered a maturing cub, and is in training for up to 2-2.5 years of its life.

One mystery had been solved: The pugmark’s size finally made sense to me.  They were of a tiger cub no more than two years! But another equally curious mystery now arose: why was the cub alone at this crucial time of its upbringing?

It didn’t take too long to finally understand why this may have occurred. The clues presented themselves one evening. On a walk through the forest I saw two sets of pugmarks side-by-side, positively that of a male and a female. Could this female be the mother of the abandoned cub? The two were patrolling the same area the young cub was in.

It seemed plausible that because of the emergence of a dominant male tiger in the vicinity the female had abandoned the cub to save it from certain death. (Unless the male is the father, a cub’s life is threatened by the presence of a rival male.)

I felt sorry for the cub now and pulled nearly every trick from my training manual to fetch a sighting. I waited for hours one night on the track he normally followed, sat patiently by the waterhole another night, and up a tree some other nights.

This cub was entirely unpredictable! I guess having to fend for itself at such a young age, it needed to be a master of illusion!

On June 28 the body of a quarter-eaten blue bull calf was found 20 meters from the solar electric fence running along us! I was excited. For this was finally an excellent opportunity at a possible sighting. A yet-to-be-eaten kill meant the predator would return soon.

Cub kill: young Nilgai (blue bull) calf

It would have to be another vigil by the kill that night. A guest staying with us enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity and soon we were parked next to the fence just as it was getting dark, at a bend on the road that kept us well hidden.

After waiting for nearly 3 hours, and with no exciting alarm calls to break the silence, just rumbling tummies aching for dinner, we decided to return for a quick bite. Within a few minutes of us sitting down to eat, a loud and prominent alarm echoed from the forest where we were just minutes ago.

We ran back to the jeep, jostling for seats until they were all taken. The calls were now regular and furious. As we approached the area where we had parked earlier one could feel the presence of a predator.  And it was not long after that the cub appeared through a lantana bush, gingerly at first and then taking purposeful strides towards us!

This was thrilling! The young male could be seen clearly in the half moon light and here he was walking just 8 meters from the jeep. The sighting lasted a few seconds before he vanished into the darkness again.

I felt euphoric on having seen him after weeks of searching, and also tremendous relief. Having had a good sighting finally, it appears that this young cub has learned his lessons well to survive in the wild without the protection of its mother.

If he had survived these past three months, he would surely be a strong survival contender, given the harsh realities of forest living. Now when we hear the calls, we’re pretty sure it’s the cub on his patrol again!