Tigers, due to their very nature, are elusive animals and that is why they are extremely hard to spot in the wild! Researchers have to come up with some ingenious ideas to try and get a closer look at these majestic beasts, and one of the most effective and non-invasive ways they have done this is through camera traps.
For those who don’t know, camera traps are left in locations which animals are known to frequent, and then when they sense movement they will take a picture of whatever caused the disturbance. With no human interference needed, camera traps are a great way to observe wild animals exhibiting their natural behaviours.
Luckily for us, this is exactly what happened over in India, and the team on the Indian Tiger Trails Project were able to capture one of the beautiful big cats on camera!
The tigress you can see in the picture above is from the first litter of Mahavir, the most famous tigress of the Kanha region and a tiger that was a super mother to her cubs as they were growing up! As we mentioned above, tigers are naturally allusive animals and this is the first time that one has been captured on the traps left by the research team.
This young tigress has been spotted around the park, but had somehow managed to stay out of the focus of the camera traps until now! She has also been joined by a male tiger who frequents this area, but as of yet he has managed to avoid the cameras as well.
Tigers are not the only big cats that the cameras have managed to get a close up view of though, as Leopards are often seen in the area too.
The 12 camera traps are not permanent instillation's in the National Parks as they are often given to guests on the project who then get to select their own location for the traps in the hope of spotting an animal. The dream though is that some of the 105 tigers who roam around the parks will soon be caught on these camera traps, and both the volunteers and researchers can begin to learn a little more about these incredible big cats.
