Ruta Kalmankar

We all know that the lion is called the King of the jungle but he derives his power from his queen, the lioness. She is strong, beautiful and caring. This queen of the jungle is a skilful hunter herself. In fact, it is the lionesses of the pride that do most of the hunting together. Only when the prey in question is a large animal like a buffalo, do they seek help from their male partners and yet, the lions always get to eat the fresh meat and the lionesses, his leftovers. A lioness is a doting mother, who takes care of not only her own cubs but of those of the other lionesses in her pride as well.

As of now there are only about 400 lions living in India and are found only in Gir. They belong to the category of Asian lions, the other category being African lions found in Central and Southern Africa. The Asian lions are somewhat smaller in size than their African counterparts.

While the lioness prefers to stay together in the pride, the other very powerful feline female of the jungle, the tigress, prefers going solo. She too is very protective of her cubs and zealously guards them from other tigers as well as other predators. The tigress creates her own territory in the jungle, which could range from 15 – 20 kms or even more. She marks her territory by spraying her urine or by making unique marks on the trees inside the territory with her claws. Curiously, when the very cubs she so fiercely protects grow up and join her in her territory and start cohabiting it with her, she promptly finds another territory.

I had an opportunity to capture a tigress by the name of Krishna on my camera from close range. Krishna was the successor of the world famous tigress Machchli. Machchli was the most photographed tigress in the world. She got her name from a fish-like mark near her eye. She was famous because of her legendary fight with a 14-foot long crocodile. She had demonstrated her acute hunting skills in that fight. Machchli was also a much decorated tigress because of her ecological and economic contribution to her surroundings. A tiger’s lifespan is about 15 years but Machchli lived for 20 years. Coming back to the rendezvous with Krishna, the location was the Ranthambore jungle. One late afternoon, in her ‘queendom’ in the Rajbaugh area, when the sun had turned golden in its descent into the West, Krishna suddenly made an appearance from behind dense, tall grass. Her beautiful, radiant skin was gleaming like gold in that light. It was a mesmerizing sight and a freeze-frame moment for me! It lasted only two minutes but the experience would remain with me for the lifetime. Another thing that would remain with me forever is the terror she evoked in other animals. I saw that when she walked on in her graceful gait back into the woods, there was virtually a pin drop silence around her. Tigresses, when they go out for hunting, keep their litter in a safe place and the obedient cubs only leave that place when they hear her growl. She is fierce and aggressive when she is with her cubs and is confronted by other animals. Her fangs can tear the strongest of the skins of her preys but with the same fangs when she carries her newborns from one place to another, they do not bring even a scratch to the young ones!

The third powerful female specie in the jungle is the female elephant. The parade of elephants is always led by the eldest female in it and the rest of the herd follows her footsteps. I had an opportunity to witness extraordinary motherly love of the female elephant at Kaziranga in Assam. I was really moved to tears by what I saw. When I was there, I saw a parade of elephants crossing the road. I was busy clicking them with my camera. Suddenly, I noticed that a female elephant was dragging something with her trunk. When I looked closely, I saw that it was a baby elephant. It was dead and its mother was dragging its cadaver with her. The guide told me that the mother won’t let go of the baby until she is very sure it won’t get up ever. This was the greatest manifestation of motherhood I ever saw. That’s the real woman!

This reminds me of a similar incident involving Krishna, the tigress. Krishna had three cubs; two female and one male. They were all about 15-18 months old. One day, Krishna killed a huge elk a while ago. We were pretty sure that the cubs would come to eat it and stood expectantly at a safe distance. Now, in the tiger world, her cubs were old enough and were no longer staying close to the mother always. This tigress was sitting near the dead elk but she hadn’t touched it yet. It was only when her cubs turned up one by one and feasted on the meat, that she helped herself with it. I was reminded of the countless human mothers waiting for their children to come back from school and feeding them…

When the female elephants walk, they form a protective wall on either side with their babies walking inside, safe. The does are always alert when they have their babies with them. Even when they are lovingly licking their fawns that are suckling, their eyes are constantly looking around for any sign of danger. A tigress teaches her cubs how to hunt. All these jungle mothers are enticing and so are the birds, who get up early in the morning, gather small twigs to build a nest for their babies and then feed them by returning to it every now and then…

That’s the woman for you, whether human or animal. She loves her children and otherwise soft like a wax candle, when it comes to protecting her offspring, she becomes an aggressive Goddess Durga, stronger than steel. I have always found the mother in a woman enticing, be it the kite, who even when soaring high in the sky, watches over her nest down below or a mother bird bringing a tiny piece of some fruit for her babies or the tigress, who leads her cubs to the prey or, Saba, the female leopard, suckling her litter in the African jungle….

Ruta Kalmankar

Woman WildLife Photographer India