Leopard tales

August 8th, 2009

Not many times in life does one come across opportunities like this. Wildlife is full of surprises, and one rewarded and when least expected. Having spent almost 2 weeks in the summer in Kabini and having had no luck with photographing any cats though sighted a few, I didn’t expect I’d get to shoot much in the monsoons. But I was in for a pleasant surprise. I was to see two leopards!

It was the morning safari and after a good session with a pack of 12 wild dogs marching along the safari jeeps for a good 3kms on the main road, we entered the forest track. We stopped when we heard loud alarm calls, we knew we were really close to the cat. We went ahead a little more and took a left cut on the track. When we were all looking into the thicket, Jeevan the naturalist pointed at the leopard running in front of us on the track and only few of us saw it. Then we went further and then we saw the guy hiding in the bushes on the left, given the undergrowth is high after the rains, it was hard to spot anything.

leopard first look

Then the driver said “another leopard!” and I didn’t see it then because I was busy shooting. But when I came and saw the pictures, yes there was another leopard lurking in the back!

2leopards

After that we did see the second leopard trailing the first one through out but in the thicket. We also figured that the one in the front was male and the other female. Then the male decided to dash on to the road

Then he waited on the road for a while, hoping that the female would join

leopard_ontrack

When she didn’t turn up, he gave up and sat posing on the slight open patch next to the road and that’s when I got the portrait shots

Then we saw the female walk behind him and ofcourse he faithfully followed and we lost track of both

Two leopards

Light was low because the sun wasn’t around and photography was hard, but I enjoyed every bit of it! Also this time I got very close shots of wild dogs, will post soon…

Category: Photography, Travel, Wildlife | Tags: kabini, leopard, Photography, Travel, Wildlife

There are 30 comments in this article:

August 8th, 2009 at 2:52 pmadarsh nc says:

Superb

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August 8th, 2009 at 6:23 pmKalyan Varma says:

Amazing stuff. Is this the same one that sudhir also photographed ?

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amogh Reply:
August 9th, 2009 at 4:28 am
No, I didn’t travel with Sudhir. I don’t know what he’s shot.

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August 8th, 2009 at 6:30 pmUma says:

What awesome photographs, Amogh!! What an experience! Really really envy you :)))

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August 8th, 2009 at 12:17 pmKunal Sharma says:

Worth a frame at Kabini

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August 8th, 2009 at 2:01 pmSrinidhi says:

Amazing shot…I liked the portrait very much.

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August 8th, 2009 at 3:38 pmJayaram Jahgirdar says:

WOW! What a sighting. Nice Photographs….

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August 8th, 2009 at 7:49 pmMahesh, Kavan & Arya Reddy says:

Amoghavarsha,

Great pics and a great report. We were real lucky to have seen the leapords with you. The videos came out good but the pics on my canon were not good. I did increase the ISO and found that is what I should have done.

Good luck with your camera hunting!

Mahesh

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August 8th, 2009 at 6:55 amNiladri says:

Hi,

great shots! simply loved ot.. and dream to take these kinnda shots myself

can you share some technical details

Regards
Niladri

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amogh Reply:
August 11th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Check the EXIF of the photograph, should give you all the details.

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August 8th, 2009 at 9:07 pmUmesh says:

Wonderful Pics maga.

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August 8th, 2009 at 9:49 pmAarti says:

Enjoyed reading and feasting on the shots!!!

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August 8th, 2009 at 11:39 amSandeep R says:

Wow.. Lovely images.. Rightly said, you are rewarded when least expected :)

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August 8th, 2009 at 11:39 amSandeep M says:

Awesome.. rare enough to get a leopard on the ground, much less a mating pair. Congrats!

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August 8th, 2009 at 12:30 pmVikram Ghanekar says:

Absolutely stunning!

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August 8th, 2009 at 11:17 pmSameer R rao says:

Lovely pictorial account of the sighting.The portrait image is stunning

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August 8th, 2009 at 11:37 pmAnand Narayanan says:

Awesome experience ! that leopard portrait is out of the world

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August 8th, 2009 at 5:50 amVishwas says:

Can you post the EXIF data for each image? It would help us learn how to take pics like these… jaw dropping images!

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amogh Reply:
August 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am
You can see the properties on the image if you are using windows and the EXIF will show up, I don’t erase the EXIF on the image :)

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August 8th, 2009 at 10:18 ammogun says:

Amogha,
Great shots absolutely marvellous.

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August 8th, 2009 at 10:18 ammogun says:

great shots. Absolutely stunning.

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August 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pmSridhar says:

Good Snaps. Amazing!!!!!!!!!!

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August 8th, 2009 at 1:13 pmShashikiran Srinivasa says:

Maga…. Awesome pics…. Truly beautiful… what lens did you use?

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amogh Reply:
August 24th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
70-200mm f/2.8 + 2X TC

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August 8th, 2009 at 1:18 pmNamrata says:

Amogh…totally awesome photographs and seems like you had a wonderful time at Kabini!!!

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August 8th, 2009 at 5:01 pmutkalika says:

looks like the lepords were posing for you….. :D
good…. like the second last one….

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August 8th, 2009 at 10:23 amyashwanth says:

Amazing stuff !

Love the picture with 2 leopards facing each other .. almost mirroring the first leopard !

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August 8th, 2009 at 6:06 pmHrishikesh sagar says:

Wow great pic,rarely we get this type of opprtunity to see wild life in its full .great work,,,

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August 8th, 2009 at 4:07 pmShravani says:

Hey Amogh,

Awesome shoots!!!! Love the way u have given a photo essay of the whole incident!!!! awesome! thanks for sharing it! great work! :)

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August 8th, 2009 at 12:32 amPreethi Sriram says:

Amogh, Amazing photography. must be an enthralling experience….and i loved the way you’ve described the whole adventure.

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Leopard tales

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