Indian deer fights off tigers and crocodiles in 24 hour battle

A plucky Indian deer fought off tigers and crocodiles in an epic 24 hour battle at the weekend before finally being overcome.

Published: 12:47PM GMT 17 Nov 2009

Tourists to an Indian wildlife park witnessed two tigers eventually bring down the deer, known as a sambar, but not before it had managed to escape from their clutches at least three times.

The stunning natural drama has been compared to the "Battle at Kruger" in Johannesburg in between a herd of Cape Buffalo, a small pride of lions, and two crocodiles.

Tourists at the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Maharashtra saw the battle unfold on Friday morning when they stopped at a lake at 6.45am.

A tigress was hiding in tall grass waiting for the adult male sambar to come close.

Sensing trouble, the sambar turned around as the tigress crept up and darted away in the nick of time, with the tigress giving chase. With no other option, the sambar chose to enter the lake's shallow waters.

Having managed to outwit the tigress, there was now the problem of two crocodiles stalking the unfortunate sambar.

The beast ran around for over half an hour in the shallow waters as it tried to dodge the crocodiles.

Unfortunately for the deer, a second tigress had heard the sambar's distress calls and came rushing to the lake from the southern side, positioning herself in tall grass to lay in wait.

Nearly two hours after the drama started, at around 8.30am, the sambar decided to come out of water and try to escape. It had walked barely 50 yards to reach the tall grass when the first tigress attacked from the west and the second tigress made an attempt from the south.

Despite being injured, the sambar escaped both attacks and returned to the waters with blood gushing from its hind legs.

As soon as it entered the water the crocodiles began targeting the sambar again, while both tigresses resumed their original positions and laid in wait.

At 10.30am, four hours after first being attacked and struggling with blood loss, the sambar limped out of the water to make a third escape attempt.

The moment it reached the grass, the first tigress again charged the animal. The tourists, who thought this would be the last bid by the sambar to save its life, were stunned when it survived the third attack and again returned to the waters.

As the tourists were running out of time, they left the park. To their surprise, the brave sambar was still in the water when they again checked at 5.30pm, nearly 11 hours its ordeal began.

The crocodiles had apparently given up, however the tigresses were still waiting for the kill.

On Saturday, November 14, the tourists returned to the Telia lake at 6.30am and saw the first tigress had made a fresh kill on the bank of the lake, almost 24 hours after the attack began.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6588976/Indian-deer-fights-off-tigers-and-crocodiles-in-24-hour-battle.html