The afternoon was quiet with a circle of vultures picking at the buffalo carcass and a herd of elephants grazing lazily towards the right of the dead animal. Additionally, two placid rhinos were minding their own business towards the north on the far bank of the water body. A flock of Swamp Deer’s were also enjoying an afternoon siesta towards the left of the dead buffalo. A few buffaloes were enjoying their mud spa right in front of us.
After about an hour and a half, as luck would have it, the tigress (the same one I had alluded to before) decides to make her appearance. Out she came from her den – hidden amidst a thick shrubby bush about 900 meters left of the carcass and after a quick survey of the surroundings start strolling majestically towards the carcass.
And, this is when an entire kaleidoscope of sequences began to unfurl before our eyes for a full quarter of an hour, but which seemed like an eternity to us. On sensing the tigress, the elephant herd more than a kilometer away were the first to react. As if in sync, the entire herd began to move briskly in her direction, their movement very unlike their usual lazy gait. We couldn’t figure out this sudden change in their behavior (maybe the late Lawrence Anthony of The Elephant Whisperer fame could have enlightened us).