The incredible moment a tiger chased an entire herd of deer before sinking its teeth into its prey has been captured in a series of astonishing photographs. Wildlife photographer Sudhir Shivaram has shared the stunning array of images, taken at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state in India.
He said he watched with amazement as the tigress chased the deer into bushy woodland by a lake, before catching and killing one and dragging it along the ground and into the water.
Sudhir said: ‘During our morning safari we came across this tigress which was sitting beside the safari track.
‘She had her focus locked on this spotted deer in the grassland near a water body.
‘The tigress wasn’t even remotely bothered by our presence.
‘We saw her scanning the terrain and spotting these deer near the water body.
‘She sprinted across and was locked on her target prey – there are spotted deer alarm calls everywhere and they all started running away in all directions.
‘The tiger adjusted her direction to pinpoint her prey and as her target was leaping in the air the spotted deer knew death was right in front of her.
‘We could see the fear in her eyes – the tiger easily caught the deer as it landed in her lap.’
Sudhir said the tiger was so tired by the chase that it was forced to dump the deer to take a rest.
He said: ‘The other spotted deer which was running behind the main deer has a very narrow escape as she saw the tiger holding on to the deer.
‘She made her escape thanking her stars.
‘The tiger was resting for some time looking in our direction before dragging the prey to the water body.
‘She immersed the deer before drinking some water – she was absolutely exhausted from the hunt.
‘The tiger then dragged the deer back to the grassland, hid it in the tall grass and the went back to relax in the water before disappearing in the tall grass again.’
