India Day Nine : Safari In the Ranthambore National Park. Deer, Birds, Monkeys And And My First Tiger !

It was another early start Saturday morning on my recent tour of India.  I was traveling with a Royal Q Travels group, something I don’t do much anymore, and we had  a 5:30 a.m. wake up call. We  were staying at the beautiful Tigress Resort  near Ranthambore National Park. in Rajasthan. We were are hoping to see a tiger but I knew, from my years of searching for wildlife, there is never a guarantee.

We were in our safari vehicles by 6:15 a.m. and drove to the 500 square mile park in the morning twilight. The park was the former hunting ground of the ruling maharajahs in Jaipur.

We stopped at the Jogi Mahal  gate to the park. It was already bustling with activity.  We had to show our passports to gain entry to the park in our Safari vehicle.

The park is   famous  for   the nearby 10th century fort,

and it’s large tiger population. A statue of the famous female Tigress Machli (T‑16)  is at the entrance. She was  an intelligent, smart, and charismatic tigress,  and more than 50% of the tiger population in Ranthambore can be traced to her ancestry.

We entered the park and learned a lot about the history, plant life, and animals from our very informative guide.

We drove through a gate and under large Banyan tree,  one of the largest in India.

and watched the sunrise over the hills in the park. The areas of the park we visited were mostly dry tropical forest with some bush lands and rocky terrain.

We came to we came to man-made lake  Padam Talao  which  was made  by the maharajahs when the area was used as   their hunting preserve.

Here our guide stopped and showed us some of the birds along the lake, including, asian wooly necked storks,

Asian open bills,

black crowned night herons, and,

Asian thick knees.

Our guide also pointed out a serpent hawk perched  in a tree above the road.

We left the lake and continued through the jungle. Our guide became excited,  and we quickly drove to an area where some other safari vehicles were  stopped  along the road.

Here, I saw my first tiger in the wild.

It was a large male who was visiting  a watering hole that was built by the maharajahs when they hunted tigers here.

We watched the beautiful animal who appeared unfazed by all of the safari jeeps and people watching him. We learned that the tigers ruled the jungle and they are not concerned with any other predators and roam  their territory at their leisure  without any fear.

I watched the beautiful animal until  it finally decided to leave the watering hole and walk through the jungle.

We watched  as the tiger came out of the jungle

and walked  on the road between the vehicles, before heading  back into the jungle.  We drove up the road, hoping to get another  encounter with the magnificent animal should it reappear. Unfortunately, it didn’t and we spent the rest of the morning looking for it and other tigers. .   We did not see any.   Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos of the tiger we  saw on our our morning safari. India Day Nine. Ranthambore  Morning safari  tiger  . October 18 2025.

We did see some other wildlife, including a few large sambar deer,

and a few herd of  smaller cheetah or spotted deer.

They were everywhere along the roads in the park.

Our guide showed us fruit bats hanging from the trees.

We also saw some grey  langur  monkeys in the tree tops and stopped to watch and photograph these playful critters.

We continued to drive through the jungle,

and bush lands,

seeing mostly spotted deer  and monkeys but  no more tigers.We returned  to the lake where we saw a many of the  birds we saw earlier , including more Asian open bills,

and also some new birds including this great egret.

oriental darters,

little cormorants and

white brown wagtails.    Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos of the birds we saw on our  morning safari. India Day Nine. Morning safari. birds  Ranthambhore October 18 2025.

Our guide also pointed out a hunting lodge used by the maharajas when they hunted in the park.

We drove around the lake and were shown a temple,

and the large 10th century fort at top of the hill.

As we were leaving the park we saw one of the crocodiles that were introduced into the lake by the maharajas.  Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos of the wildlife we saw on our morning safari. India Day Nine. Ranthambore Morning safari. wildlife  October 18 2025.

We ended our morning  Safari round 10 o’clock and returned to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast, I edited photos for a couple hours until around 2 o’clock when we left for our afternoon Safari. Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos from our  morning   safari. India Day Nine.  Ranthambore  morning  safari. October 18 2025.

We again  drove on the dirt access road from Tigress resort and took the highway to the entrance about 15 minutes from the resort.

We entered the National Park at the Jogi Mahal gate again and  drove through the Banyan trees, and saw this large sambar, buck and doe licking salt from one of the buildings along the road.

We saw many more spotted deer,

And some wild boar along the trail.

We drove past the lake and through the bush lands

when we again came to a bunch of parked  vehicles

and we’re lucky enough to see a a female tiger rolling on her back in the grass.

We stopped and watched and waited, hoping for her to get up. She did, and we were treated to more spectacular photographs of this beautiful animal.

We were very fortunate to see two tigers on the same day. When looking for wildlife, I am very much aware, that there are no guarantees and it was a good chance we would’ve seen no tigers on this Safari. I learned our our tour guide Aparna made arrangements for us to have the best Safari guide in the national park a accompany our vehicles. We were thankful she did since we were treated to this rare opportunity to see these large beautiful creatures in their natural habitat.

I also saw this, I believe,  lemon pansy butterfly, and

ditch jewel dragonfly while  watching the tiger.

We left the tiger and began our long journey home through the park.

We saw a few more wild boars,

and spotted deer along the way.

The

It was dark awhen we returned to the hotel. It was another long day. And it was a wonderful day.  We saw two beautiful tigers,  and many new species of birds and other wildlife. I could not have asked for more on this safari.Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos from our afternoon safari. India Day Nine.  Ranthamb]ore   afternoon  October 18 2025.

After taking a shower, it was time for dinner.  I had another delicious meal,  sampling all types of Indian foods. I left the group early to edit photographs and work on my blog. I was sleeping better now, probably, because I stopped taking my malaria medication. I retired early since we had another early start and a long drive to Agra, home of the beautiful Taj Mahal,  early the next morning  It has been on my bucket list since I was in third grade.   Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with more photos from our afternoon safari. India Day Nine.  Ranthamb]ore   afternoon  October 18 2025. 

“Do not blame God for having created the tiger, but thank him for not having given it wings” – Indian Proverb.

“The Tiger in many countries, particularly India, represents the apex of the animal pyramid and the protection of their habitat should be a worldwide priority.”
– Dr. Karan Singh

“Better to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep.” – Tibetan Proverb