Live from the Indian Jungles

Otter day!

Last Thursday, I was on a boat safari early in the morning, as the jeep safari was closed due to tiger census. I was with Mr. Ken Fields, a birder from London, who was searching for Malabar Pied Hornbills along the riverside. We had entered the forest and still could see the villages when we noticed a small mongoose like animal on the bank, which immediately dived into the water and its head bobbed up! It was an Otter!
I was seeing one after a long time and we immediately switched off the engine of our noisy motor boat. Usually these guys are shy and they disappear quickly but this fellow was rather inquisitive and was
swimming around us. He caught a fish, a small one, right in front of our boat and then he then came really close to us from behind when I got this photograph! This was my closest and best otter sighting ever.
( one more otter )
Then, we went further and saw another otter resting on the submerged tree stump and even this one was not scared of us! Later, while returning from the safari, we saw three more otters at the same place.
They were swimming back and were smaller than the ones we saw in the morning. Five different otters in a day!

However, we came back to the lodge with out seeing the Hornbills - which was our primary objective. In the evening, we were joined by Mr. Mohan,

deponti and

amoghavarsha, . We saw a crocodile disappearing into the water after some basking in the evening sun when Byra noticed more Otters on Bandipur side!! As we went closer, we noticed that there were four of them, feeding on a big fish. This was an Otter day!
Soon, we heard Langur monkey giving alarm calls - surely a predator was around. And then we heard Tiger roar! As we were waiting for the elusive big cat, we finally saw two Malabar Pied Hornbills flying across the river from Kakankote(Nagarhole) to Bandipur.