And Andrew was worried by another policy...
The elephants were happy to see us... 
And felt much more rough than I anticipated - they could us some serious moisturizer!!
Many monkeys roaming around the grounds... this one let us get within a foot of him!!
But in India, it is all about the tigers. We hopped on a "safari van" and headed into the tiger sanctuary. The driver let Andrew co-pilot and even let him man the stick shift!
Let me start by saying, "WOW"!! These are simply amazing animals. Just a few quick facts that you might not know about the Bengal tiger...
The elephants were happy to see us... And felt much more rough than I anticipated - they could us some serious moisturizer!!
Many monkeys roaming around the grounds... this one let us get within a foot of him!!But in India, it is all about the tigers. We hopped on a "safari van" and headed into the tiger sanctuary. The driver let Andrew co-pilot and even let him man the stick shift!Let me start by saying, "WOW"!! These are simply amazing animals. Just a few quick facts that you might not know about the Bengal tiger...- There are estimated to be only 1300-1500 tigers living in the wild today, nearly all of them are right here in India.
- The white Bengal tiger is simply a normal Bengal tiger which has a double recessive gene giving it his white (and BEAUTIFUL) color.
- If a white Bengal mates with a white Bengal, 100% of their offspring will be white. If a white Bengal mates with a traditional yellow Bengal, 100% of the offspring will be yellow (unless the yellow partner is an offspring of mixed parents in which case there is a 50% chance of a white color) Got that?
- The white Bengal tiger is so rare in the wild that there have been only 9 confirmed sitings in the past 50 years!!
- These tigers (males) have an average adult weight of 500 pounds!!
I have seen caged tigers before. The San Diego Zoo has a terrific display, as does the Sydney Zoo. But seeing one of these fabulous creatures up close... face to face... you have to see it to believe it. These are pictures we took with our little Cannon camera, out the van window... no fancy zoom lens... just a few feet from these huge cats. Andrew said it best when he shouted out, "This is definitely the closest I've ever been to a tiger"!
This guy is just a cub, only 18 months old... check out the size of his paws...
Next week we head to Kabini, where we will visit Nagarhole National Park!
2 comments:
Happy Birthday Taylor!!! We're glad to see you had so much fun & had another once in a lifetime experience!!! Today was very cold, rainy, windy & even a little snowy in Saratoga County. The tigers would not do well here in this climate!! Tell everyone hello!! Shelley, Jim, Ethan , Emily & Sarah
Hey Cyn, I am still loving all the blogs - don't know how you find the time - oh, yeah - you have a Sheila! Anyway, I love the tiger picures but, do you want to hear something scary? Waldo's paws (our dog) are just about as big! (he is probably a little less scary though) Keep up the good work until you return to the good old USA!!!!
Love to all,
Judy
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