Royal Bengal Tiger captured in a camera trap set in Royal Botanical Park

The presence of Royal Bengal Tiger in Royal Botanical Park in Lamperi, Thimphu is evident. And what stands proof is live video footage captured with camera traps set up in the park provinces, by the Royal Botanical Park (RBP) of the Nature Recreation and Ecotourism Division (NRED) under Department of Forests and Park Services.

This time the tiger was recorded in Sonala Mountain ridge about five hours walk from the park office and this is the second time that it has been video-filmed by camera traps.

The 15 minutes video file has image records of the Royal Bengal Tiger prowling along the forest trail during the day, following the track of scent left by the prey. The video has also disclosed a tiger moving downhill appearing as if it is closely following its prey.

According to sources, setting up of the camera trap in the Sonala area happened when a herder lost a bull in the forests and was suspected to have been attacked by the Royal Bengal Tiger.

Although the lost bull escaped from the tiger and managed to reach home it later succumbed to the severe injuries sustained during the attack and died.

Park officials said when they investigated the injuries the bull sustained, it was evidently those that a Tiger could inflict on its prey. The bull was attacked from behind by the predator. The marks on the rump indicated that the Tiger sank deep its claws piercing through the thick hide of the bull.

However, it could not be conclusively established until they got the video evidence of the Tiger prowling in the area very recently.

Earlier this year, the Park for the first time confirmed the presence of the tiger when they got hold of video evidence at Thadana at an altitude of 3,000 meters above sea level. The video evidence was further recorded with numerous other evidences such as pug marks, scat, hair and the leftover carcasses.

Although the report was filed-in only earlier this year, the image was captured couple of years ago. The confirmation was delayed when the monitoring team couldn’t read the memory in the video mode.

This according to the park officials happened as the team lacked a compatible card-reader, like laptop during the camera monitoring.

The digital camera did not show files recorded in the video and the image was later received from the Royal Society of Protection of Nature (RSPN) while checking their SD card.