A mother and daughter tiger clawed and pounced at each other in an extraordinary roadside brawl after the younger tigress tried to share the matriarch’s territory.
The 350lb mother tiger, known as Arrowhead, put up a fierce fight to defend her land from her daughter Siddhi at India’s Ranthambore National Park.
During the fearsome battle, the two tigers leaped and clapped their paws at each other as they tried to establish dominance, in a brawl witnessed by safari tourists only a few yards away.
Photographer Chandrabhal Singh, from Pune, India, was among those to witness the fight on Saturday in what he called ‘scenic and prime territory’ in the national park.
‘The daughter should have sought some new territory for herself elsewhere in the forest but claiming territory is tough for young tigers as there’s not much space,’ he said.
‘The daughter went to see if she could share her mother’s territory, but the mother defended her land – chasing off her daughter.’
Singh, who has been capturing pictures of wildlife for two decades, described how the mother-daughter duo had come to blows, then stopped fighting for a moment before Arrowhead charged again at Siddhi.
“Siddhi still kept her guard keeping an eye where her mother disappeared. While Siddhi was looking in the other direction, Arrowhead came stalking and quietly approached Siddhi. Siddhi was not ready for this surprise attack,’ he said.
Park rangers say the population of tigers in the nature reserve is increasing, meaning that even mother and daughter can come face to face to mark out their own territory.
The park said that ‘the mother taught the daughter a lesson’ in the dramatic brawl, adding that neither was badly injured and that the animals were being monitored ‘as a precaution’.
Arrowhead is the granddaughter of the former ‘Queen of Ranthambore’, the matriarch tigress known as Machli who was also described as ‘India’s most famous tiger’.
Machli, who died in 2016 at the age of 19, was regarded as one of the main attractions for tourists visiting Ranthambore – but Arrowhead is now seen as the ‘superstar tigress’.
