By Saloni Mathur
RARE images capture the impactful play of tiger siblings as they create a splash while enjoying a water fight in their jungle home.
In the heart of Panna National Park, India, the four tiger cubs that are part of a reintroduction success story ventured to the water‘s edge before shattering the peace of the shimmering pool through their waterplay.
At around eight months old, the cubs are three to four feet in height and 110 to 132 lbs in weight.
These cubs belong to a tigress who has been coded as P151. She is part of the tiger family tree that was translocated from the Kanha tiger reserve in 2009 in an effort to reintroduce this big cat family to the Panna National Park since the species vanished from the area.
Now, thanks to this hard work, the park houses as many as 60 tigers, along with about 40 cubs.
Hailing from Mumbai, India, wildlife photographer Siddhesh Mungekar took these images from a mere distance of 25 feet using a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera with a 400mm 2.8 lens.
“P151 is dominant female of panna. She now has four cubs, out of which two are male and two are female,” he said.
“Early in the morning, a few people informed us that they had witnessed the tiger family crossing the park road.
“To locate them, we followed the deer and monkey calls – warning sounds to alert other animals about tigers– and reached towards the waterbody where they played for around 20 minutes.
“I have been photographing tigers for the last 15 years, and that love kept me enthusiastic about the magnificent predator even after capturing images of as many as 400 tigers to date.”
ENDS
