BRINGING BACK TIGER
The sun was getting low over Bardia National Park, Nepal. As wildlife photographer Emmanuel Rondeau and his guide made their way back to camp, they spotted a group of chital deer not far from the park’s border. Huddling tightly and casting furtive glances towards the undergrowth, the deer’s behaviour suggested they were not alone. But it was impossible to identify any potential threat in the metre-high grass.
The guide pulled up next to a tree and began to climb. Emmanuel followed. Suddenly, the guide stopped in his tracks, and uttered the one word Emmanuel had hoped to hear since he’d started his quest five years previously: “Tiger!”
It took a moment for Emmanuel to spot his quarry, perfectly camouflaged among grasses burnt yellow by the sun. It was his first wild encounter with a tiger after documenting the big cat, first in Russia, then Bhutan and now Nepal. As if that wasn’t enough, the guide then spotted a second tiger, lying quietly in a closer patch of vegetation. Emmanuel was incredibly lucky. After decades of uncontrolled persecution and relentless habitat destruction, wild tiger populations have declined by more than 95 per cent – from an estimated 100,000 to as few as
