Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dholes of Kanha !

Dholes are among my top favourite predators in the world ! There are so intelligent, good looking and charismatic...almost always up to some action !

I came across this beautiful pack one summer morning in Mukki. We first saw them sitting on the track..there were 15 of them...with 7-8 sub-adults, which were so cute and shy!!


This Alpha male came up very close to us..stretched it's body and muscles...before setting off for a hunt...


Just look at it's beautiful brick-red coloured coat..with a lot of white...in the lovely early morning light...I did not notice so much white in the Dholes of Nagarahole-Bandipur, which is one good habitat for them.


They set off on a hunt ! In fact, we later saw the adults giving a high-speed chase and corner a Chital Stag...the actual kill we could not see as they moved into an area behind some rocks and bush on the edge of a meadow. Sadly, these amazing predators are getting increasingly rare..Kanha used to have a good population...now we do not see them often.