Pesky peacocks and the hungry tigress

Early in the afternoon we saw the tigress disappear into a tall clump of grass lining the lake’s edge.

When she didn’t re-emerge even after 20 minutes, we deduced that, she is planning to hunt.

The deers come to the bank of the lake to drink water in the late afternoon and it would present a perfect opportunity for the tigress to stalk and hunt.

Excited, with the prospect of watching the hunt from close, we selected a spot diagonally opposite to the patch of grass and started a vigil .

Intermittently, we could spot her in the grass, when she would raise her head to check the movement of the deers.

After a wait of nearly 1.5 hrs, with the dusk approaching, appeared the pesky peacocks. One of them soon spotted the tigress and immediately started a alarm call, initially in a low volume which kept climbing higher and higher with the other two joining in a chorus, alerting the deers nearby.

With her cover blown and prospect of a meal disappearing, eventually the tigress came out of hiding, with hunger in her belly and murder in her mind….but there was nothing she could do…. except try not to appear too embarrassed.

She waited for a while, deliberately ignoring the irritating birds and not caring much for the orange winter evening light sweeping the trees and tinting the top of the dry grass with a golden brush.

Tigers hunt mainly between sunset and dawn. They stalk their prey for hours sometimes camouflaged in shrubs or grass , getting as close as possible and then to race at the animal pouncing on it and biting the neck or throat. When the prey is dead, the tiger drags it to a safe place and eats it. Tigers eat up to 18 kilograms of meat at one time.

If the prey is a large animal, the tiger can feed on it for a few days. Not every hunt is successful, so tigers don't eat every day. Tigers average about one kill every eight or nine days

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