This most probably will be first blog with less text and more images. First of it’s kind!
Tigers are enigmatic creatures and undoubtedly awe-inspiring. If everything goes well, a tiger will live full life of 12 years plus. However to live full life successfully, tiger has to be battle ready at any time. The practice for battle starts from chubby days beginning with access to mother’s milk. Tiger becomes hardened warrior with time by utilising skills they learnt as cubs during playful fight with siblings. This blog would talk about how the playful fights amongst the tiger cubs becomes critical skill to become “Tiger”.
Tiger cubs are born after gestation period of 3 months. They have no vision for first 2 weeks of life. They are weak and can’t even walk properly for 1st month. They are completly defenceless for first few months of life and dependent on mother. The mother will keep the cubs hidden as much as possible since these tiny tots are easy pickings for birds of prey and other animals including tigers. Mumma tigress keeps moving the cubs from den to den, in-order to protect them so that scent of cubs doesn’t attract unwanted attention. As cubs grow older they gain size and stability in gait. Generally, this is time we get glimpses of the cubs for first time as they start following the mother.
They start feeding on animal protein in about 6 months and start growing at astonishing speeds after that. This growth fuels confidence and boldness in cubs. They start playing various tiger games which are essential for them to thrive and survive in real battles of wild. Let’s have a look at some images to understand how games help build skills in tiger cubs.
I recently shot these images at Tadoba. These cubs are approx 14-15 months old. The games they play is already setting tone for hierarchy amongst these tiger cubs. The cubs play these games joyfully without a care about whats happening around them. However, I was telling myself these spiritsofwild who are brothers and sisters, playing together, in less than a years time from now will become nemesis of each other. They wont mind fighting with each other to death for territories, food and mates. There is much more to play and practice for cubs before the real battle begins.