Amid a downpour on Wednesday morning, there was much to learn about Nature’s ways. Out for street photography to capture ‘action in rain’ shots, Anuj Jain chanced upon Paddy egrets hunting frogs in the growing puddles beside the road that branches off to the ISBT, Sector 17, from behind the showrooms. A curious House crow was in attendance, studiously observing the hunt.
Jain, who retails apparel from a Sector 17 showroom and nurtures a passion for photography, noticed that the egrets would dunk a frog into the water four to five times before gulping the prey down in one piece. The egret sought to remove the mud off the frog and make it smoother for ingestion, a habit that ibises are also known to indulge in.
Some egrets could not swallow a frog in the first attempt and would regurgitate it before managing to do so in subsequent bids. The egret would take a sip of water after successfully swallowing a frog. Ingestion down the bird’s narrow gullet is no mean feat as the prey is big with limbs jutting out at awkward angles and flailing wildly.
The highlight of the rainy morning was the clever crow. Having learnt how to catch frogs from egrets, the crow also made a smart kill and flew off to a tree. However, unlike the egrets, the crow tore apart the frog before eating it in pieces.
{{/usCountry}}The highlight of the rainy morning was the clever crow. Having learnt how to catch frogs from egrets, the crow also made a smart kill and flew off to a tree. However, unlike the egrets, the crow tore apart the frog before eating it in pieces.
{{/usCountry}}The noble tiger
* Unknowing people prefer to believe a tiger is a “blood-thirsty” creature and will pounce upon a human at first sight. However, those who have roamed the jungles vouch for the large-hearted and gentlemanly character of this awesome beast. A tiger is likely to leave a human alone when chanced upon unless it is a man-eater or is stressed by villager-tiger conflicts increasingly prevalent in the peripheral zones.
Thursday was International Tiger Day and I retrieved a charming nugget from the fertile pen of Brig. Ranjit Talwar (retd.). A shikari-turned conservationist, the retired Armoured Corps officer held the post of coordinator at WWF-India’s Tiger Conservation Programme for 13 years. The tiger’s character as portrayed by Brig. Talwar mirrors Jim Corbett’s experiences. The famed hunter had encountered tigers real close from his childhood days, including one that arose from behind a plum tree where young Jim was hunting game birds and another who crossed his evening walk, but was graced by the noble beasts to live and tell his tales.
“During the winter of 1963 or ‘64, we were shooting Jungle fowl along Kosi River (Ramnagar forest division, adjacent to Corbett National Park). Suddenly, a few fowl took off and I dropped one that fell on top of an overgrown lantana bush. As I entered the bush to retrieve this bird that was still fluttering, what I saw drained all my blood. Facing me at about 6-8 feet was a tiger who appeared to have been rudely awoken from his slumber. I stood still more out of fear than as a deliberate ploy. With an irritated tiger staring at me, I stood frozen with the breech of my BRNO shotgun open as I was in the process of changing the spent cartridge…a process I abandoned on seeing the tiger. The initial expression of surprise on the tiger’s face quickly changed to that of disgust that clearly expressed: “Can’t an honest, hardworking tiger have some peaceful sleep without disturbance from pests like you?” As the tiger was quick to judge that I was only a ‘bumbling fool’ and not a threat, he turned around and ambled away without looking back once,” wrote Brig. Talwar.
Brig. Talwar signed off his tale with a saucy twist: “As this was happening, the ‘gun’ (shikari) to my left, who had seen nothing of the tiger, shouted: “Come on, hurry up, we don’t have all day to retrieve your bird”. I held back my reply because the tiger hadn’t disappeared yet and I didn’t want him to give him a reason to change his mood. And once the tiger did, what I told this impatient ‘gun’ will remain unprintable.”
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