I have no doubt about Col. Jim Corbett's ability or the ability of a few hunters to imitate the call of a tiger and other animals. Jim Corbett was teaching jungle warfare to army men. He has written that among other things, he used to teach "how to make calls to imitate jungle sounds". (My Kumaon - Uncollected Writings - Jim Corbett, page 24).

I have read in many shikar books about shikari's imitating tiger calls. One of them, Shri Gadadhar Ray from Odisha had written in his book that he wanted to know whether he can imitate the call of a tiger and hence he hid in a bush and called like a tiger when he saw a cowherd along with his cattle in the jungle. Immediately the cowherd picked up his stick and tried to beat at the bush and simultaneously calling his buffaloes for help. He somehow could shout at the cowherd to stop and extricated himself from the bush. Later he said that he became bold enough about his ability to imitate a tiger and had called at a tiger during mating season. He had also mentioned the ability to imitate distress call of birds which is termed in odiya as (peen peenya). Shikaris put sticky substances in bushes and make this call to attract birds who immediately start calling listening to such sounds and get their legs or wings stuck.

I am ashamed to recollect some childhood experiences, but nevertheless I am doing it, as it will throw some light on the behaviour. I used to try and imitate simple bird calls like that of cuckoo, different dog sounds etc.

Whenever a cuckoo used to call from a nearby tree, I used to call back and the cuckoo immediately responding at a slightly higher pitch. A slanging match used to start with each trying to outdo the other. It finally used to stop when the cuckoo reaches the top of its voice, as if it is screaming and then it stops. I used to laugh that I won as I had made the cuckoo stop calling. The cuckoo used to call after some time again and I used to start the war again. I have no idea if the cuckoo used to think that I am a competitor or it thought the impersonator should be shouted down. Nevertheless it used to happen.

I could easily yell like a puppy dog and get a response from my own dog which never tolerated other dogs. So when Shri Krishnan says that canines get annoyed, I agree with him. Today, if there is any authority who can claim to correctly call like a tiger, then I have the wherewithal to examine it scientifically.

People often doubt the ability of persons. A few scientists today, envious by the reputation of Jim Corbett, obliquely question the authenticity of his ability to read pug marks. All I can say is, when you have to be in the jungle on foot and your survival is at stake, then one will learn ways and means, be it finding food or water from plants or how to avoid leech bites, remove ticks to avoid sores, treat scorpion bites or imitate calls of wild animals and birds.