A bear and a tigress engaged in a standoff that almost resulted in a battle, a scene that is extraordinarily unusual for visitors to an Indian nature reserve.
This incident happened in April at the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, a protected region in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On April 30, visitors on a safari recorded the interaction and uploaded a video to the social media site X. A bear that looks to be a sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) bursts out of the trees in front of the tigress (Panthera tigris) as she ambles along a dirt road. The bear causes the tigress to stop dead in her tracks.
A rarest of rare sight of a bear charging towards a tigress, captured today at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve- A CATS( Conservation Assured Tiger Standards) habitat developed assiduously by UP Forest Department.
Pl don’t miss the calm and composure of Big Cat even in face of attack &… pic.twitter.com/jU48UWpTqJ— Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta IAS (Retd) (@drrajivguptaias) April 30, 2024
The bear wanders across the road and disappears behind long grass as the tigress watches. Moments later, as the tigress strolls on, the bear reappears and chases after her.
“A rarest of rare sight of a bear charging toward a tigress, captured today at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve,” Rajiv Kumar Gupta, a retired government official with the Indian Administration Service who witnessed the encounter, wrote in the post.
In the video, the tigress whips around when she hears the bear charging after her, but she does not attack and instead stands her ground. After a few seconds of the two predators facing off, the bear retreats back into the trees.
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