Maya

India, post-monsoon, October 2018. Tigress T12, known locally as Maya (Hindi for illusion) gives us a 'side-eye' before following her mischievous cubs into the forest. Maya resides in the core of the park, and being a brazen wild tigress is a favourite amongst visitors to the park. It is estimated she brings in the majority of the reserves income (around £8K per day), and is vital to the local economy.

I hope that the parks can open very soon, as poaching has been rampant since the outbreak of Covid19, as tigers like Maya face even more threats. I also hope I can see her raising her cubs to adulthood once again.

Good luck to her and all the other species that exist under her shadow...

Canon 1DX, 400mm f2.8

A leopard at night

Tadoba tiger reserve, 2016, late evening we encountered a pack of Dhole that seemed somewhat excited and were circling around a patch of forest. It was only when the whistles subsided and one of them looked up, that we spotted a very young leopard silhouetted against the darkening sky.

We were shocked to see how high the youngster had shot up, and even though she was safe, she kept looking down at the dogs as they circled below her.

Leopards are great climbers and seem just as much at home in the trees as some primates.

I decided to use multiple focal lengths of 70-200, 400mm and 800mm to attain the above sequence, all stabilised with a beanbag. The sheer fright the leopard was feeling meant she stayed relatively still and I was able to use slow shutter speeds to extract as much detail from the scene as possible.