The tenacious cat

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 13, 2013217 views5 comments

The past decade has seen a tremendous resurgence of big cats in India. Earlier the leopard had a free run in most jungles, the resurrection of tiger populations pushed the leopard out of the Tiger Jungles, however in certain Protected Areas/Tiger Reserves where the density of the leopards and tigers is quite high owing to the high prey density and also the adaptablity of leopards to take kills up on the trees. The leopard is one tenacious cat which fights bigger predators and co-predators like wild dogs. The leopard is really versatile when it comes to adaptablity in the Indian landscape, occuring across sugarcane fields, close to garbage dumps, rocky landscapes.

This image was shot in Nagarahole National Park, best accessed from Kabini River lodge http://203.187.255.2:777/kabini-river-lodge

1/800, ISO 800, f 5.6, Canon

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on March 14, 2013 at 2:15 AM

Vijay ..Beautifully composed, and love the setting here. Beautifully crafted..

Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on March 14, 2013 at 9:28 AM

Hello Vijay

Great Light, What time of Day ?
Beautiful Specimen, Love the Tail Curl!:) The pond Reflections on left side appear very nice but harsh on the right side as seen without the tree bg. to block the sky.

Thanks

Bill

Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on March 14, 2013 at 11:28 AM

The complimentary colors of the reflection are quite nice. I would consider cropping more from the bottom, as the OOF foreground doesn't really add anything to the image. That would also get the cat out of the center of the frame.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Terry Sohl on March 14, 2013 at 11:35 AM

Such a beautiful animal, very well captured. I like how the tones of the foreground vegetation and the reflection mimic the leopard.

I saw a story yesterday about Leopard populations in India, how they used camera traps to get a better handle on populations. As you say, they found them even in and around urban areas, in densities shockingly high for heavily degraded habitat. Good to see that even a large cat like this can adapt.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 513 Posts, 6889 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on March 14, 2013 at 2:06 PM

Beautiful pose and great light Vijay. I do echo Max' crop suggestion for a better presentation of this.
Even here in southern Africa leopards live in and on the outskirts of urban centers; a very adaptable species for sure.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments