Peek-a-Boo

No two tigers wear the same coat; the stripe pattern is a signature, worthy of this apex predator. Built in rust and cream and barred head to tail in black. It is also the point: against dry grass and dappled forest light, those hard vertical bars break the outline of an animal this size down to almost nothing.

Adults are solitary and fiercely territorial, patrolling and scent-marking a stretch of forest they hold as their own — a male’s range often folding in those of several females. Where you find one, you are on land it has claimed.

I wouldn’t have spotted this fine gent had the guide not pointed him out. Sitting quietly, perfectly camouflaged, keeping an eye on his forest.