November 2016. It was my fourth trip to Desert National Park (DNP) in Jaisalmer, and my friend’s first. On earlier trips I had already seen the likes of the Great Indian bustard, king vulture, cream-coloured courser and desert fox. With a new-found fascination for small cats, I was keen this time to see a desert cat, also known as the Asiatic wildcat, and had asked the guide to take us specifically to the areas where they are found.
The evening we arrived, we saw a family of Great Indian bustards, a mother and her young. They grew used to us and came unusually close, closer than on any earlier trip. Even after such a good sighting, my mind was still on the cat, and I wanted to spend the next day looking for it.
We set out early the next morning at 5.30. Our guide, Urus, said cheerfully that he had seen something like a desert cat cross the road the night before, after dropping us off. Hopeful of seeing it by day, we went to the exact spot where he had seen it and began our search.
The place was near the DNP entry gate at Sudasari, and in our sturdy Bolero we started scanning the arid scrub. Our first encounter was with an Indian fox which, like all foxes, kept glancing back at us as it ran off, giving us some memorable frames.
Once it left, we went back to looking for the cat. Near the DNP fence, Urus spotted something and called out, “Cat… cat…”.
It was more than 500 metres away and barely visible even through my 600mm lens. We could have driven closer, but chose not to. If it took fright and slipped across the fence or into the scrub, we would never track it down again.
So we were patient, watching its movements from a distance and hoping it would come to us. We switched off the engine and waited. We could see it going back and forth, clearly searching for something — in hunting mode, looking for small rodents or birds. After 15 minutes we started up and closed half the distance, still about 200 to 300 metres from the cat.
By now we could see it was a lone male. Mothers with cubs are seen relatively more often, so a single male was an uncommon sighting. This was the first time we managed some record shots. We turned the engine off again and waited and waited. Another 20 minutes passed, and by then it seemed comfortable with us.
At one point it began moving towards us — not for us, but after a bird it was chasing. It ignored us completely, which was exactly what we wanted. A couple of times it came as close as 50 metres, like in the image below.
It was clearly hungry and hunting hard. This was a classic stalking crouch, aimed at a lapwing we could see. The attempt failed and it missed. But the hunting and stalking looked much like the big cats we have watched — tiger and leopard. There is a reason they all sit in the same cat family.
After another 20 minutes it was so at ease that it even used our vehicle as a hide, as in this image. It was not looking at us but at a bird on the far side of the vehicle, which flew off before it could charge.
Watching this cat make a successful kill would have been the memory of a lifetime. Even so, the close time we spent with this elusive desert cat, in the early-morning golden light, is something we will not forget.
