Tony Wiles reporting on visit to the BFF tiger facility at the Bannerghatta Biological Park, Karnataka, South India, 19th to 30th November 2007.
It is with great sadness that I have to start this report with news of the death of Dr G.K.Vishwanath, the assistant director and veterinarian to the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
On 10th November last year whilst going about his duties at the park he encountered a wild elephant which charged him. He was unable to reach safety before the animal caught and seriously injured him.
He was rushed to hospital where he survived for 50 days before succumbing to his injuries.
He was a charming man who went out of his way to make sure the BFF cats were looked after in the best possible way. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him especially me.
Now for the good news “the Masti tiger” is now in the Born Free Foundation facility in Bannerghatta and enjoying his especially modified night kraal with a pool, trees and grass to walk and sleep on.
This poor tiger had been living in the Nagarhole National Park, a huge area of tiger, habitat in the Western Ghats in South India when one fateful day he put his foot in a poachers trap set to catch wild boar.
He managed to escape but in the process received massive injuries to his left foreleg, losing his paw.
He struggled to a cave near the Mastigudi area of the Balle forest range, where he was found and duly rescued. The injury was so severe that he had to have the lower part of his leg amputated.
He has recovered well, but it does mean he will never be able to hunt again. So we have supplied him with the next best thing at the BFF centre.
As he is a totally different animal to the captive bred ones we rescue, being far more wild and aggressive towards humans (rightly so after what they have done to him). We have had to strengthen his enclosure for his and the staff’s well being.
ROQUE
Roque as always came to find me on my return to India, but took a considerable time to come and greet me as he was laying in a tree covered gully beside a pool and seemed to be agitated by the flying insects which tend to congregate during and immediately after the monsoons.
When he did come he spent a couple of minutes in my company then decided that he would rather be in the thick bushes avoiding the insects. He returned to the forest obviously in a bad mood growling and biting at the annoying little beasts.
ZEUDY
Zeudy like Roque hides deep in the bushes during the heat of the day as that is the most comfortable place to be. In the morning and again in the evening she is much more active and will spend a great deal of time checking out all the comings and goings in her area of forest. She seems to have settled down again now and has got over the initial impact of losing Royale.
Her condition has improved and she has got her old zest for life back. Of course the arrival of a new male on the block (Masti) is always a reason to for a female tiger to take interest.
KING AND HARAK
The other two cats King and Harak are looking particularly good and do spend more time out in the open than Roque and Zeudy. King’s huge natural pool is full and he spends a lot of time laying in or wading and swimming around it again this is a good way to keep the insects off.
Harak does similar but has to use his man-made pool, he also spends more time sleeping out in the sun than all the others.
Tony Wiles reporting on visits to BFF tiger facility at the Bannerghatta Biological Park, Karnataka, South India, 28th January to 8th February and 11th to 19th March 2007.
Yet again another year has gone by and our tigers have been in Bannerghatta for almost five years.
This is the latter part of the cooler season and although the water holes are getting low by now, there is usually a reasonable amount of water still left in the tanks. Unfortunately the last monsoon was very poor and so things are already looking quite dry. King’s magnificent large natural pool, which we had spent considerable time and effort in de-silting and restructuring the sides, had no water at all. However, Kings still has his small man-made pool which is topped up by the staff.
Two of the tigers were receiving treatment during the course of this trip. King had a slight stomach upset which was dealt with very quickly and he is now back to his old self. He had to stay in his night kraal for a few days; this was for observation and ease of treatment. He still had grass to lie on and trees for shade, the only facility we denied him was his night kraal pool which we emptied in case of infection and to force him to drink from the bowls provided, in which we added medication to the water.
Royale has been limping very badly for a few days and initial investigations were not able to pin point the cause. At first we thought it might be arthritis and treated him accordingly, but he did not respond to this and continued to deteriorate. Other tests showed that he had renal failure and he was immediately given treatment. This seemed to work and the limp became much less noticeable and he became his old self again. Although still under observation in his night kraal he started to patrol his territory and let everybody know he was still king of the jungle by roaring loudly toward each side of the enclosure.
Zeudy - For some time the two males in Zeudy’s life had not been at their best, poor Greenwich passed away on the 28th May last year and with Royale now unwell and confined to his night kraal life, Zeudy is spending more time in her night kraal to be close to him. Zeudy has always been in the company or vicinity of much older males and so sadly, it was inevitable that this time would come.
Harak is at long last becoming more amenable with the staff and even stayed around when I visited him which is most unusual. He still generally keeps himself to himself and providing no other males are in close proximity, with the exception of King whom he tolerates, he will remain fairly deep in his day kraal away from prying eyes.
Roque - To find Roque I have to walk right around the perimeter of the BFF tiger facility as his favourite area is the furthest from the main entrance and dens. It takes some time to get to where he lays up during the day, but the walk is worth it as he is usually happy to see me and makes a point of coming to greet me. Even though he will be eight years old on the 17th May he still likes us to play chase if the weather is not too hot. As he gets older he spends more time hidden away deep in his day kraal.
14.3.07 – ROYALE UPDATE
Five weeks after my return to the UK we received news that Royale was again deteriorating and that the treatment he was receiving was not making any improvement to his condition. He was not eating and seemed generally very unhappy.
We immediately decided that I should fly out to India and see if there was anything more we could do for him. I had discussed his chronic renal failure with Born Free’s veterinary consultant, Johan Knight and now I had further discussions with leading Indian animal veterinarian Professor Shetty and with Bannerghatta Biological Park vet Dr. Vishwanath. With Royale no longer responding to treatment for his kidney disease it was decided to end his suffering and he was euthanased on the 14th March. Royale was cremated and his ashes scattered over the land where he had enjoyed the last five years.
Tony Wiles
8th May 2007
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