Beautiful Malaysian Tiger

The village of Kodore housed the bravest warriors for two hundred miles in every direction. It wasn't the biggest village among the settlements that were scattered across the deep, dark forest. But what it lacked in numbers, it made up for through the reputation of Ika-mae, the bravest hunter in the land. One night during midsummer, the elders of his village held a council with the elders from the neighboring provinces. All of the settlements within two hundred miles of Kodore were being harassed by a large, strange beast that carried off livestock and frightened the people. The wisest elder in Kodore immediately enlisted Ika-mae to hunt this creature down. The following night, Ika-mae prepared his best spear and vowed not to return to the village until the beast was dead.

For many nights he hunted the creature, studied its tracks and hid in the trees to ambush it, but he saw neither sight nor sound of the elusive phantom. One evening when he was tired from a day's tracking, he knelt by a flowing stream to drink. It was then that the beast made its presence known. Without so much as a sound, it leaped from the bushes to attack the young warrior. Ika-mae turned just in time to grab his spear and slash the beast across its hide, leaving a long, thin mark along its flanks. The beast fled back into the trees with a snarl, and Ika-mae chased it in hot pursuit. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch the beast. Many evenings after, whenever Ika-mae stopped for a drink of water, the beast would try to catch him unaware, but Ika-mae always turned just in time to reach for his spear and slash the animal across his hide, leaving yet another streak. This dangerous dance continued between the beast and Ika-mae until, before the season had ended, the creature was covered from head to toe in dark stripes given by the warriors spear. From that point on, all of the beasts descendants bore the marks of their father. The elders of the village never saw Ika-mae again, and many say that he and the great beast are doing battle in the forest to this day.

It’s 4:15pm and the day is cooling down in this isolated community zoo. As usual, with fading light, rich colors come to life along with sturdy tripods. Thankfully, most of the visitors are leaving for the day.

I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see a Malaysian Tiger. There are only about 150-250 left in the wild on Peninsular Malaysia. What do we have here but a young tiger, also known as Harimau to the Malay. A most beautiful and impressive cat to be sure but there’s an obstacle standing between me, my camera, and the tiger. 2-inch bars keep me from becoming his next meal. Good for him and good for me, but not good for my camera. Still, with the ability to jump up to 25 feet vertically, and 33 feet horizontally, I can’t really complain about the safety or thickness of these bars. 

What should I do?

As cats of any size are prone to do, the tiger walks back and forth, refusing to look directly at me. Pretending he is not aware of my presence, he blithely completes figure eights in the enclosure. As long as he remains close to the bars, there's no image to be captured.

I wait patiently, hoping he becomes bored and walks toward the rear of his enclosure to get a drink of water. If I can zoom in on him, the bars will vanish. At a distance of about 16 feet, he may even grace me with some acknowledgement. The beauty of the camera is that it makes a sound, a CLICK which animals can't resist trying to pinpoint. Every move, every sound, every nuance in nature communicates something to them, predator and prey alike.

After about 18 minutes, he casually walked behind the bush through the rocks, drank some water and took a long hard look at me. CLICK. He turns his head, fixing me with his laser-sharp vision to see the camera, while the camera sees him (bars vanished, all good). f/3.2 

ISO 320

Focal Length 200mm 

Yes, I also threw the ISOs up a bit. Who wouldn’t? I needed to catch his beautifully detailed face as his eyes met my lens. 

Oh, and this strange guy (an Emu) at the bottom was watching me the whole time and taking notes. I take it he may be a member of the local photo club. Don't worry because with photography there's room for everyone. We're all learning and teaching. Keep going!