Image of tiger eating leopard in Ranthambore goes viral

In what is believed to have been a territorial dispute, a rare image of a tiger killing a leopard and eating it too, in Ranthambore National Park has gone viral on social media.

Bengaluru-based professional wildlife photographer Harsha Narasimhamurthy has captured this rare face-off between a tiger and a leopard. The tiger identified as T-101 was sighted in Zone-1 of the national park recently. Narasimhamurthy, who teaches wildlife photography, has termed it a double slice of luck."

"What an incredible morning this was, as we tracked his pugmarks from the Singhdwar and followed it till Tutikenaale and they stopped at a nullah. We searched him in vain and went ahead in search of Noor which was also not fruitful, as we were heading back we decided to check the area where the pugmarks had stopped and saw two canters with people standing and watching something and that's when we saw T-101 feeding on something and everybody assumed it to be a spotted deer," narrated the photographer.

"Once the canters left, this guy lifted the dead animal and that's when I realised the spotted deer we thought turned out to be a leopard. I just couldn't believe how lucky I could get to see a tiger predate on a leopard second time in 10 months !!!!!," he added. "As we had to exit the park, we took a few shots and rolled a few footages quickly and drove towards the gate gleaming in joy !!!!," he said.

IFS officer Parveen Kaswan shared Narasimhamurthy's photos in a tweet, "When hunter gets hunted. Tiger-eating leopard in RTR. Rare capture... Have you seen anything."

According to wildlife experts, territorial fights between tigers and leopards occur often in the wild as it wants to eliminate competition. The tiger is predatory in nature and has pushed the leopard into village borders in many cases. As the tiger is bigger and more powerful, it could end up killing its competitor.