CHOWSINGHA – FOUR HORNED ANTELOPE & MUNTJAC (BARKING DEER)

I always tell guests “never say never” & such was this fabulous sighting of the chowsingha. It’s very difficult to see one of these shy & unique antelopes.

Driving back during the end of the game drive we saw that one of the other tourist vehicles had stopped in the middle of the jungle road. Usually you can tell when it’s a predator being sighted by the expression on the faces of the tourists, but this one I assumed was to listen to the sounds in the jungle. Suddenly the guide in our vehicle hopped up from his seat & pointed telling me it was a barking deer (another difficult animal to see in Pench). Excited, yet confused when I saw the animal, picking up my binoculars to re-check - this one took me by complete surprise. The next thing we knew I was moving in a frenzy quickly trying to point out to our guests the CHOWSINGHA.

Knowing the behaviour of this antelope a spilt second sighting was what we usually would get. This female antelope was unusually calm, scanning the situation around (we even got a decent picture) it crossed the road behind our vehicle and with a lot of grace pronked away into the grassy undergrowth. A few hundred metres away our surprise & excitement was doubled when we got to see a male MUNTJAC in the dense lantana undergrowth – NEVER SAY NEVER!

Posted: Baghvan by Sajith Ponnappa, Date: 6 November 2011