It sounded more like a cough to me, but the rasping gasp from the depths of the forest was a tiger’s mating call. In the dawn stillness, the jungle seemed to hold its breath in awe.
Chuck paused on the trail, listening intently. “Bangi Pothi,” he muttered softly, before hurrying on silently through the trees in his rubber thonged sandals, canvas bag slung across his shoulder.
The tigress with a crooked pointed toe was one of the resident females around Tiger Tops lodge whose habits Chuck knew well. Bird song broke the spell, and a distant langur monkey signalled a grunt of alarm at the tigers’ presence.
With trackers Krishna, Sukram, Baburam and eager binoculared trainees in noiseless pursuit, the party was keen to find pugmarks to identify the courting male. Every morning Chuck McDougal and his team checked on the previous night’s tiger activity, and on their newly invented system of pressure-plated camera trap photography where every tiger can be recognised by its individual pattern of stripes and facial markings. A male tiger took the very first picture of himself on the ridge above Tiger Tops in 1974.
These morning walks were not only part of Chuck’s tiger studies, but also a chance to impart first hand jungle lore to Tiger Tops’ cadre of young naturalists and nature guides. Hard science and no bullshit, was his creed. Recruited from throughout Nepal and India, this elite taskforce was entrusted with introducing visiting tourists to the intricacies of Tarai wildlife, and to keep it safe in tiger terrain.
With Jim Edwards, Chuck had taken over Tiger Tops in 1972 and together their brand of business acumen mixed with purist wildlife expertise melded commerce with conservation, putting Nepal on the map as an eco-tourism pioneer before the term was invented.
Ever sparing with words, Chuck was a gifted mentor, generously sharing knowledge and offering encouragement to acolytes in his reticent drawl. I did not often accompany these jungle excursions, being busy with more mundane tasks, but the names of my naturalist colleagues echo down the decades: Ashish, Bhim, Bir Bahadur, Balaram, Devi, Dhan, Dinesh, Gun Bahadur, Hashim, Kalu Ram, Karan, KK, Mash, Pun, Pradeep, Rahul, Raju, Wangdi, Yam and others. Although widely scattered, many are still committed to the tourism and conservation mantra that we preached with a zealous passion.
