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Hpsavino
June 16, 2012

Queen of the Jungle

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When I was in India, I had one of the most amazing experiences in my life: the opportunity to see a tiger in the wild. I had seen tigers in the zoo before, but nothing can compare to a sighting of this majestic animal living freely in its natural habitat, viewed from an open jeep about 20-25 feet away. Our guide told us that he only sees a tiger about every 10 treks he does, and a sighting as good as ours comes about once a year. What made it such a great sighting was the fact that we were so close and had a completely unobstructed view of this gorgeous creature as she lounged lazily in the water, lapped at the water with her tongue, eventually yawned, got up and stretched, and slowly walked away, even giving us a great roar as she stalked off. Later that night, we watched the documentary Tiger Queen, and learned that this was no ordinary tiger. She was Machli (or Machali), the longest-reigning queen of the jungle in documented history. Machli is now 15 years old and has by now been deposed by her own daughter from the prime jungle territory she ruled for so long. However, her reign is legendary. She is known to have killed at least 8 crocodiles and has successfully defended her kills against male tigers on numerous occasions. Our guide called her the Goddess of the Ranthambore wildlife reserve because she has had 11 cubs, making a huge contribution to the future longevity of tigers living wild here. You can still see clips of her amazing exploits on YouTube. When we saw her in 2011, she still looked fantastic despite her age and reduced hunting abilities after losing 3 of her canine teeth in fights with crocodiles. This photo was taken by one of my traveling companions who had a great zoom lens and was nice enough to share her pics with me.


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