This 2nd part of the exciting sighting of the Bengal Tiger in Bandipur National Park was what made this, one of our best Tiger sightings in Bandipur. In case you missed that post, you can read it here. The Tiger that disappeared into the Lantana came around and started walking along the edge of the waterhole. It was obvious that it wanted to quench its thirst. However, it kept walking along the edge of the waterhole and headed into the Lantana. It looked like this exciting sighting was all over, when suddenly the Tiger sprang a pleasant surprise. As it reached the Lantana, it made a welcome U-turn and headed back to the waterhole.
When it reached the waterhole, it turned around and settled down, back first, in the waterhole. After a couple of minutes of cooling itself, the Bengal Tiger turned to face us and gave us a majestic pose. You could hear the ooh’s and aah’s from the excited tourists while the photographers kept clicking away to glory!
After a few minutes, this chilled out Tiger surprised all of us once again. It got up and walked towards us traversing the entire width of the waterhole and picked a spot, much closer to us, and settled down once again.
We moved our Jeep a few meters ahead to a vantage point from where we had an uninterrupted view of this majestic Prince of Bandipur. After a few minutes, the half drenched Tiger got up and walked away into the Lantana, presumably to sleep off the rest of the day.
