Satpura Tiger Reserve early morning drive - Part 2 of 5 Tiger Reserves of India

Up at 5.15am to cross the Denwa Backwaters and enter Satpura Tiger Reserve, a beautiful park in Madya Pradesh. It has to be one of India's most scenic Tiger Reserves in central India, the diversity of the terrain is impressive, its staff very professional. It is a National Park that is well worth while visiting for those who enjoy watching wildlife at peace in their natural environment.
Satpura Tiger Reserve in India's Madhya Pradesh State 2,200 km2 (850 sq mi) of unique central Indian highland ecosystem. The terrain is extremely rugged from 300 to 1,352 metres (984 to 4,436 ft) with sandstone peaks, narrow gorges, ravines and dense forests.
It has 1,300 species of plants, 50 species of mammals, 254 species of birds, 30 species of reptiles, and 50 species of butterflies. It is also known as Satpura National Park joined Project Tiger in 2000. Its name is from the Satpura mountain range. Some grasslands were created by relocation of 23 villages from the core area of the reserve. It has about 40 tigers so one has a probability of seeing tigers one in every drives. For us it was special as it was not over run by tourist jeeps. This is a record of our drives.
Our trip to Satpura, Pench, Tadoba, Kaziranga and Corbet, the five Tiger Parks of India:-
Part One - Our first Satpura Drive with a good sloth bears and cub sighting • Afternoon drive - Satp...
Part Two - Our 2nd Satpura Drive we see a massive herd of Guar or Indian Bisson • Satpura Tiger Reserve ...
Part three - Our third Satpura Drive we see a fish eagle with large fish • Satpura National Park ...
Part Four - Pench Tiger Reserve - We follow a tigress for 15 minutes as she scent marks • A Magnificent Tigress ...
Part Five - Pench Tiger Reserve - We follow a leopard on the hunt • Pench 1st drive - Part...
Part Six - Pench Tiger Reserve - we see a tiger and two leopards • Superb leopard sightin...
Part Seven - Pench Tiger Reserve - we see a distant leopard on a kill then lying up on rocks • 2 tigers & 1 leopard o...
Part Eight - Pench Tiger Reserve - A walk in Pench Forest with two Naturalist Rangers • Jungle Walk in Pench T...
Part Nine - Pench Tiger Reserve - Our last drive we learn about the elephant rangers of Pench • Pench Wildlife Park fi...
Part Ten - Tadoba Tiger Reserve - Two superb tiger sightings and the story of tiger human conflict • 2 superb tiger sightin...
Part eleven - Tadoba Tiger Reserve - Two superb tiger sightings and Tadoba's tiger human conflicts. • 2 superb tiger sightin...
Content of this video
00:00 Into - India & Project Tiger beginning
01:40 Satpura National Park map routes
02:19 Saranput drive to boats
03:10 Start of morning drive
03:35 Guides discuss tiger routes
07:01 Guar or Indian Bison
07:45 Jeep tiger looking positions
08:07 Indian Giant Squirrel
08:33 Racquet Tailed Drongo
09:35 Water hole spotting
13:34 Breakfast & Indigenous art
17:36 Wild boar
18:43 Crocodile
19:50 End of the drive & lunch

[@drattray8400]

I ran the bird song at 4:40 through Merlin and it identified two birds, the Rufous Treepie and Hume Warbler. Jim Corbett did say that the Laughing Thrush "alarm" call was a reliable indicator for predators and he used it on numerous occasions when tracking tigers and leopard.

[@ameyaathawale5521]

Looking forward to the rest of this series!

[@khaliq432]

Welcome india 🎉

[@JamesRattray]

Thank you

[@amvj]

I am thoroughly enjoying this series and especially your narration. I wish this video is little longer and so are the future videos. :)

[@JamesRattray]

It is an interesting question about the length. I have people saying some of the videos are too long. What I am doing this time, is basing the video length on the content we saw on each drive. The next video i will put out on Thursday evening is even shorter. The one after that I am currently working on will be much longer, it is a full day's drive and we had a marvellous tiger sighting too. Thank you for your comments, they are very much appreciated.

[@ramnathpai9107]

Pls visit gir forest in Gujarat

[@JamesRattray]

I am not sure when our next trip will be. We did consider it, but didn't convince the rest of the group. May be next time.....

[@orion7326]

One of the birds at 4:40 in this video was a Laughing Thrush. The Laughing Thrush is the best indicator of presence of carnivora. Something was definitely there, either a Tiger or a Leopard.

[@JamesRattray]

Fascinating, I didn't know this. I will have to do more digging to understand this more. It appears the guides were unaware or couldn't see anything, and due to our lack of knowledge of Hindi were unable to explain this to us. Thank you for sharing this.

[@orion7326]

@@JamesRattray Yes the guide seemed a bit new. That bird is a genuine indicator of carnivora. It's call sounds like someone is laughing very fast. It will sound more excited for Tigers and a tad bit less excited for Leopards.

[@JamesRattray]

​@@orion7326 I have asked our natural to comment, this is what he has said, "At 4:40 the birds are Greater racquet tailed drongo, Treepie, and at the end sone warbler. No laughing thrush. Also in Satpura we don't have any species of the laughing thrush." Also interestingly my brother used the Merlin App, to see what it could detect, this is what he said "it identified two birds, the Rufous Treepie and Hume Warbler." He added comments similar to your own about Corbett, "Jim Corbett did say that the Laughing Thrush 'alarm' call was a reliable indicator for predators and he used it on numerous occasions when tracking tigers and leopard." Maybe Satpura is out of its range as indicated by Vishnu, Google tells me "It is a highly social and vocal bird found in forest and scrub from the Himalayan foothills to Southeast Asia." I have to say I found this whole discussion fascinating, thank you for provoking such an interesting dialogue, I have learnt lots from this.

[@orion7326]

@@JamesRattray Thank you for letting me know of this. That makes sense, laughing thrushes are seldom found away from the Himalayas.

[@JamesRattray]

@@orion7326 I enjoyed the whole conversation, we all learnt lots too. Especially laughing thrushes being able to identify carnivores. Thank you!