"Caught in the Act".....Tadoba!

[V S Sankar]

This Tiger was Caught doing the act of scent marking!...The scent marking is done with a mixture of urine and scent.The desired territory of a Tiger is 50 sq Kms and this is shrinking because of habitat loss.FromTadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.(A head turn towards the camera would have been desirable but Tigers don't scent mark like that!).

Canon 80D,Canon 100-400 IS II USM,f5.6,1/100,ISO1000,Hand held at 271 mm

Regards

V S Sankar

[Mrudul Godbole]

You captured the moment. I have normally seen tigers scent marking on tree barks. The composition looks fine. Were there lot of tourists in Tadoba this time? Thanks for sharing.

[V S Sankar]

Mrudulji Tadoba was having a lot of visitors.When we arrived at this scene there were already 3 vehicles.I think except a few gates all gates are overflowing with visitors!

Regards

V S Sankar

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tigers need to do scent marking to warn intruders that the territory is taken by someone else. This avoids unnecessary conflicts. The scent is a mixture of different chemicals. Ratan Lal Brahmachary along with others had done studies on pheromones. Earlier scent marking was not understood because it was very difficult to sight a tiger on foot. George Schaller had first reported a tigress spraying scent. Before that shikaris had not paid enough attention to scent marking.