Loading search...
Alison Fure travelled on our 'Nepal - A Mammal Tour' holiday and submitted this entry to our writing competition.
Elephant back safari, Chitwan
Tigers May Occur
Tigers were mentioned in the brochure as ‘elusive and difficult to see’ and certainly not on the list of ‘diverse animal fauna’ regularly sighted at Chitwan National Park, on our mammal tour of Nepal. That a Tiger ‘may occur’, became even less likely during our elephant safari, where we lost our expert guide, on account of my roommate needing the additional seating space to stretch an ailing leg.
Things began to look up slightly when Doman, our diminutive elephant driver, (who we had met the previous day making ‘elephant sandwiches’ for his feisty mastodon) found a fresh well-marked Tiger footprint in an area ‘recently’ cleared to make a new water hole. It was a poorly chosen site, constructed too high above the water table to function. The natural vegetation had not yet regenerated and the bare ground made it easy to track the direction of the animal.
Our ‘driver’ was preoccupied by the siting of these outsize ‘pads’ and his stopping, in order that we could see two Indian Rhino in the kapok brush was token, giving us scant time to focus our cameras before he changed direction, plummeting us head-first down a steep bank into the lower level of the swamp and through great swathes of elephant grass. Here in the muddy channels between giant tussocks, additional footprints were found, although these were overlain with chaotic patterns requiring a forensic interpretation (more than was obvious to two middle-aged ladies who would normally be at lunch at this hour).
Our transport suddenly froze and with a seismic stomp on her front legs, coupled with a rumbling snort, prepared a charge into the undergrowth. The faster gait of our elephant felt cumbersome as she appeared to 'run' with her front legs, but 'walk' with her hind legs turning almost ‘on a rupee’ to stay on ‘track’. During our frenzied locomotion, there was little noise from the beast especially from those great feet. There was no noise from us either, we just held our breath and concentrated, not knowing what excited elephants could do, although it was definitely worth finding out. The day was not hot, but sweat was dripping from Doman’s face - excited, nervous or both.
The massive tangle of elephant grass bordered a large orphanage, whose playground was now full of children and separated only by a chain link fence (although reasonably high). Less than 100 metres from the fence we found a deer skull with horn still attached, indicating how near to children a hungry crouching Tiger had been. Several fruitless forays and random mammoth charges along meandering wet paths, made us wonder whether the trail had gone permanently cold, and stoically we prepared for disappointment at the loss of our quarry.
We left the swamp for higher ground and less inhospitable grassland. As Doman had little English we who ‘need to know these things’, couldn’t ask if he was formally giving up the search. Whilst reflecting on how big game hunters may have once shot from an elephant such as ours and how funny the two lumps on an elephant’s head were, we surprised a small herd of super-alert Hog Deer. Our elephant wanted to make wide lumbering circles around them. Clockwise, anti-clockwise, clockwise but then, a sudden direct charge towards the deer, flushing the Tiger whose orange body was suddenly perpendicular to the ground as if propelled by a rocket. Vulnerable still but with their enemy exposed, the deer (who would normally run from us alone) never saw the point of flight from the inevitable. With cover broken, the Tiger replaced stealth with speed and, in a count of three, was a memory.
Read more about our 'Nepal - A Mammal Tour' holiday.