Footage of a tiger clearing a stream in one massive bound has gone viral on Instagram and X.
Wildlife photographer Harshal Malvankar captured the short video of a lone tiger in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest that straddles the border between India and Bangladesh.
Another photographer, Uday Agashe, captured an amazing photo of the roughly 200kg cat just as it launched. He then uploaded it to the international citizen-science app INaturalist.
Conservationists estimate that there are around 100 Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans. Sightings are fairly rare, partly because tigers avoid people, and partly because visibility within the mangrove forest is extremely restricted. The best bet for those hoping for a tiger sighting is to watch creeks and banks at the edge of the forest during low tide.
“Because of a rise in the count and density, tigers have to keep moving between islands to keep their territory intact. Tigers are very territorial. The increased movement results in more sightings,” Justin Jones, the deputy field director of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve, told The Telegraph India.
