Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Tony Wiles reporting on visit to the BFF tiger facility in the Bannerghatta Biological Park, Karnataka, South India. 24^th June to 04th July 2008.

Although the monsoons were not due for another month it rained in the evenings on most of the days I was at the park. After several years of poor rains the tables have now completely turned and everything is looking fresh and bright with much water in the tanks (lakes and ponds) dotted around the park.

One of the downsides to the early rains is the fact that the repainting of our day kraals has taken longer than anticipated, which in turn means the tigers spend more time shut in their night kraals whilst the workforce painting the inside of the perimeter fence and the internal dividing fences are having to work between the downpours.

Over the years the staff have put a lot of time into planting shrubs, trees and bushes around the BFF facility and with the warm climate and the unusual rainfall the place is looking absolutely fantastic.

The Masti tiger – this is the wild tiger that was brought to Bannerghatta after losing a paw while escaping from a trap.  He had to have the lower part of his front leg amputated and with no other space available, he was homed in a small cage at the forestry rescue centre for two years, until he was rehomed to our more spacious surroundings in November 2007.  He has settled in really well and is enjoying being outside in his specially modified area. He is still extremely aggressive towards humans and will not hesitate to charge the fence if anyone goes too near his enclosure, but when he is on his own he loves rolling in or lying on the grass under the trees and spends long periods in his pool.

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get any good pictures of him as he does not even allow the staff to get near enough to take a good photo. Before we took the tiger from the forestry rescue centre, to help relieve the pressure on their resources, he was being sick every few days or so, but since last November he has been in the BFF facility under our care and has not been sick once.

He has put on a lot of weight and with only three legs it has made it more difficult for him to move around. Fortunately we have just got a new young woman vet in charge of the day to day welfare of our animals and between us we have implemented a diet that will make him fitter, healthier and more able to move with ease.

By giving our tigers as near natural environment to live in as possible it can be quite difficult to write a detailed account of their lifestyle. Apart from coming out of their forest area for food every other day one very rarely sees them.

This is because their home ranges at present have a thick cover of undergrowth comprising of very long grasses and masses of thick shrubs, in fact the visibility into each area is no more than 10 to 20 metres before the animal disappears altogether.

On this trip, as we have a new vet, we decided to hold the cats in the night kraals  when they came in to feed so that we could assess each one the following morning. This gave me the opportunity to see how well the tigers were doing and if necessary make modifications to their diet or deal with any other aspects of their welfare that might have arisen during their time in the forest.

Roque had slightly damaged his hind foot some time ago and it appeared to have slightly flared up again, but with a little TLC, an antibiotic and a dollop of ointment he was on his way still as friendly as ever with the staff and myself. As it is wet and cooler he has taken to lying on top of a wall, all that remains of some hut or building, long disused, in his forest area. He did come and find me on two occasions this trip but as I have mentioned in the recent past, he only stayed for about five minutes before disappearing into the forest.