I’ve been spending some time going through my archives of unpublished photos, and came across a trip to India a few years back where I was fortunate to be able to visit Kabini – a protected wildlife area that is part of the larger Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka.
I was able to do four safari outings over two days into the park, and see some of the local fauna. While I didn’t chance upon any of the area’s tigers, I did see quite a cast of characters.
The sambar deer is large and shaggy, typically alone or in small groups. They remind me most of elk in North America, and as seen in this photo, I’ve usually seen them semi-hidden in dense brush.
Much more common in the area are chital – a slightly smaller spotted deer that travel in herds. They are not very skittish, usually seen in more open areas.
Occasionally we were treated to troop of tufted gray langurs. I could sit and watch their antics all day, as many of their expressions and movements are human-like. It is nice seeing them play in natural environments verses the multitude of macaques that have invaded some of the towns and cities.
This was a bird I had never seen before, and had to rely on one of my phone apps to identify. These are yellow-footed green pigeons, and I was lucky to catch them fly up on a bare branch in the sunshine for a brief moment.
One of my more memorable sightings of the trip were a couple of mongoose – a stripe-necked mongoose and (as pictured here) a ruddy mongoose. They were fast and elusive, so this was the best shot I got of the sightings.
Not to be outdone by the mammals, there were also plenty of spiders to see (yay!) In fact, the lodge that my friend booked for us was known for their variety of spider species and even had an onsite naturalist that gave guided spider tours around the property. Of course, had I known this reputation before the trip, I might have requested a different accommodation.
This is a photo of a giant wood spider who had spun a large web next to our room’s staircase. To say it was huge is a bit of an understatement – it definitely filled my dreams with unease while I was there. The wood spiders’ web can reach 20 feet across from one tree to another, creating a wall of death for unwary insects. These spiders are big enough to catch small birds or bats, though thankfully I didn’t see any of that.
On a lighter note, there were several ponds dotted throughout the forest, and I saw a red-wattled lapwing on the edge of one of them. Lapwings are members of the plover family which I have photographed fairly regularly over the years.
I was blessed with two owl sightings. First a jungle owlet, the smallest owl I have ever photographed. They are about 8 inches long and weigh approximately 3 ounces. This one was perched quite far away in the dark recesses of the jungle.
Later I encountered a much larger owl, the brown fish owl. This one was perched in a small clearing and we asked the driver to maneuver our vehicle so that the background was as far from the tree stump as possible. This allowed the background to blur away, creating a nice sharp portrait of the fish-owl. These owls can be up to 24 inches long and weigh as much as 5 pounds.
Last notable sighting for the trip was a changeable hawk-eagle. I had seen several of these over the course of the two day excursion, but right at the end of our last day, we got to see this one much closer.
Overall it was a great trip, creepy spiders and all. I’d definitely welcome another opportunity to visit – you never know what you’re going to see in that dark jungle.
