Wildlife Sighting during a cruise at Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala, India!!

The view of the shola forests, the lovely greens and the vast hills is not the only thing that one gets to see during a cruise at the Periyar Tiger Reserve.

 
In addition, the jungle loving tourist gets to see a lot of wildlife in its best forms.


The Periyar Tiger Reserve is known for its elephants and tigers. But, sighting a tiger from a boat is very difficult unless it comes down to the river to quench its thirst.


And, I was just plain unlucky not to see the pachyderms. However, I was able to sight huge herds of the gaur. Gaurs are the largest bovine animal and are highly muscular in nature. Their white socks are a very pretty sight.

 
I was also lucky enough to sight huge groups of the wild boar who were busy grazing in the far away grasslands.


Overall, my best sightings were of the fish-loving cormorant and darter birds that were sunning themselves on the dead tree trunks. One could see these ultra flexible birds from a very close range.

 
I was able to sight other birds including kingfishers. But, the surprise package came in the form of a fresh water tortoise that had crept up a small rock and was soaking in the sun.