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Tigers: The Secret Life
In this generously illustrated narrative, Thapar documents the family life of three tigers and their cubs at every stage of the cubs' development. Providing remarkable insights into these secretive and nocturnal creatures, the author includes surprising new evidence that male tigers play a significant role in rearing their offspring. Valmik Thapar is a freelance photographer and documentary film maker who has spent 20 years in the Ranthambhore National Park, where the tigers are protected. His account will fascinate anyone with an interest in wildlife and animal behavior.
1 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 18, 2021
3.5* Good info about the private life of India's tigers; the author's writing leaves something to be desired, however.
Further reading:
Tigers Forever: Saving the World's Most Endangered Big Cat
Living with Tigers
The Great Soul of Siberia: In Search of the Elusive Siberian Tiger (it's not about the Bengal tiger but also describes, much like this one, the private life of tiger families, just in a vastly superior style)
Further reading:
Tigers Forever: Saving the World's Most Endangered Big Cat
Living with Tigers
The Great Soul of Siberia: In Search of the Elusive Siberian Tiger (it's not about the Bengal tiger but also describes, much like this one, the private life of tiger families, just in a vastly superior style)
January 22, 2024
This book has been the result of continuous observations of tigers in the Ranthambore National Park from 1985 to the mid 1990s by Thapar and Fateh Singh.
The book goes into the family life of tigers - the father's role of the male tiger, the hunting teacher role of the tigress, the bonding between the mother and the cubs, etc. It also deals with notions of infanticide by the male and nuances of forest life including the variety of prey and predators, the mating season of tigers, idiosyncracies of tiger behaviour and feeding patterns, the various areas of Ranthambore like Semli, Nalghati, Gilai Sagar, Rajbagh, Jogi Mahal, etc.
Thapar has documented the life of tigresses of the park - Padmini, Laxmi, Nalghati, Noon and Basundhara and how they fare with their litter in a park surrounded by intense human and livestock population. The author's depiction is detailed and gives a close view on the glorious Tiger. The book gives an overview of tiger conservation efforts in India and how forests and wildlife are endangered due to human activity and poaching. It raises a clarion call for all to engage in the battle and secure a future for the natural heritage of India.
The book goes into the family life of tigers - the father's role of the male tiger, the hunting teacher role of the tigress, the bonding between the mother and the cubs, etc. It also deals with notions of infanticide by the male and nuances of forest life including the variety of prey and predators, the mating season of tigers, idiosyncracies of tiger behaviour and feeding patterns, the various areas of Ranthambore like Semli, Nalghati, Gilai Sagar, Rajbagh, Jogi Mahal, etc.
Thapar has documented the life of tigresses of the park - Padmini, Laxmi, Nalghati, Noon and Basundhara and how they fare with their litter in a park surrounded by intense human and livestock population. The author's depiction is detailed and gives a close view on the glorious Tiger. The book gives an overview of tiger conservation efforts in India and how forests and wildlife are endangered due to human activity and poaching. It raises a clarion call for all to engage in the battle and secure a future for the natural heritage of India.
June 9, 2016
Thapar's style of writing is crisp and fluid. The life of tigers is aptly documented and several secrets are revealed. The male tiger heading and interacting with the family was surprisingly a new discovery while many documents prior to this have only told that the male/father is a threat to the cubs. "The Secret Life of Tigers" has come up with many of the secret practices of the tigers. Thapar has also commented on the depleted ecology, which is affecting the animals in the forests. He has mentioned about certain measures to put a check on this environmental imbalance, thus spreading awareness midst the readers.
July 19, 2016
The book unravel the lives of the mystical tigers of ranthambore. How the three tigress rear their young and never seen fatherly behavior of the male tigers. Though the account of the tigers stands a decade old, the book still captivates you and after finishing the book leaves you yearning for more. Kudos to Mr. Thapar for writing such and exceptional and keenly observed account about the pride of india.
November 20, 2017
there are no words to express its stupendous style of writing...
u just have to read it.. to flow with the mesmerizing habitat of
ranthambore national park...!!!
u just have to read it.. to flow with the mesmerizing habitat of
ranthambore national park...!!!
June 3, 2018
Book Review: The Secret Life of Tigers by Valmik Thapar
I have been deeply fascinated by the tiger for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would gape wide-eyed at those nature documentaries on BBC showing the life of the Indian tiger. I dream about these gorgeous and mystical animals all the time. Sometimes I see myself inside a forest, watching a tiger go about its business from close quarters. Just watching. Completely enthralled. My heart pounding with excitement.
The Secret Life of Tigers by Valmik Thapar is a mesmerizing book that took me right inside one of my dreams. It chronicles the lives of three tigresses and their cubs inside the Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan and records for the first time the role of the resident male tiger. While following these tigers many secrets are unfolded and several myths are busted about the legend of the Indian tiger.
A noted naturalist himself, Thapar paints a vivid and charming picture of the forest life and the magnificent tigers roaming about it. First published in 1989, the entire book is written in the forests of Ranthambore, under an open sky, where Thapar, along with Fateh Singh Rathore (former Game Warden of Ranthambhore), track the families of these three star tigresses and with it producing some hitherto unknown secrets about the animal.
As an eternal fan of the tiger, there were plenty of myths and legends associated with it that I had grown up with. This book, however, helped shatter many of them. I have noted down a few new points that I learned about the tiger after reading this book.
* The tiger is not always solitary. It can hunt with its cubs and even its kin, depending on the bonds it forms with them. The Indian tiger was driven to its solitary or nocturnal nature in order to survive the ruthless hunting that it was subjected to for decades in the country.
* Tigers live in family groups that maintain links even after cubs reach adulthood, thus demonstrating the possibility of sustaining kin links over long periods of time.
* The resident male who fathers a litter doesn’t always abandon its family. In fact, this book, through proper evidences shows that the resident male plays a role in raising the family.
* As protective as tigress is about her cubs, she can be forced to end their life in certain circumstances. There is a heart-breaking scene in the book where a tigress kills all three of her cubs by choking them because she couldn’t provide them with food and couldn’t carry them along any longer with her.
* In protected and undisturbed habitats like Ranthambhore, the tiger can flourish and reveal facets of its family life that few can imagine possible.
Aside from revealing some important information about the life of a tiger, this book is also charming to read. It isn’t fast-paced. But it certainly is gripping. I felt like I was right there beside Thapar as he observed and documented the lives of these tigers. Descriptions of the tiger hunting its quarry are thrilling. There are a few scenes where you can almost see the tiger, with its great yellow and black stripes, inserting its canines in the throat of the deer and bringing it down.
Another part I loved was Thapar sitting in the verandah of Jogi Mahal (an old government rest house inside the forest premises), overlooking the Padam Talao, and observing the tigress Noon along with her cubs for days. The tigers drink from the lake, rest by its banks and hunt whenever they can, sometimes even in the lake waters. These were such captivating images that spending some time at Jogi Mahal is now one of my life’s goals.
Thapar concludes the book by presenting a grim picture of the tiger’s destiny in our country. Sample this: at the turn of the last century, we had about 40,000 tigers in the Indian wild and now we have barely 1500 left. Years and years of mindless hunting and poaching has brought the tiger to the brink of extinction and now there is no coming back from it. Human greed has now ensured that the tiger will certainly be extinct. All we can do is delay it for as long as possible.
The Secret Life of Tigers is an important book. It is perhaps the first one to record the family life and myriad facets of the behaviour of the wild tiger in such details. It is also a delightful read if you have any interest in the tiger. Thapar writes with great lucidity and erudition and you can sense his deep love for the forests and the tigers in his writing. This is a book that every nature lover would love. It is short, filled with vital information and is beautiful in the way it captures the essence of a magnificent beast.
Reading this book was akin to reliving a long-cherished dream. I am absolutely certain I will keep this one for posterity. Back to my dreams of tigers now. After reading this book, they have only become more vivid.
I have been deeply fascinated by the tiger for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would gape wide-eyed at those nature documentaries on BBC showing the life of the Indian tiger. I dream about these gorgeous and mystical animals all the time. Sometimes I see myself inside a forest, watching a tiger go about its business from close quarters. Just watching. Completely enthralled. My heart pounding with excitement.
The Secret Life of Tigers by Valmik Thapar is a mesmerizing book that took me right inside one of my dreams. It chronicles the lives of three tigresses and their cubs inside the Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan and records for the first time the role of the resident male tiger. While following these tigers many secrets are unfolded and several myths are busted about the legend of the Indian tiger.
A noted naturalist himself, Thapar paints a vivid and charming picture of the forest life and the magnificent tigers roaming about it. First published in 1989, the entire book is written in the forests of Ranthambore, under an open sky, where Thapar, along with Fateh Singh Rathore (former Game Warden of Ranthambhore), track the families of these three star tigresses and with it producing some hitherto unknown secrets about the animal.
As an eternal fan of the tiger, there were plenty of myths and legends associated with it that I had grown up with. This book, however, helped shatter many of them. I have noted down a few new points that I learned about the tiger after reading this book.
* The tiger is not always solitary. It can hunt with its cubs and even its kin, depending on the bonds it forms with them. The Indian tiger was driven to its solitary or nocturnal nature in order to survive the ruthless hunting that it was subjected to for decades in the country.
* Tigers live in family groups that maintain links even after cubs reach adulthood, thus demonstrating the possibility of sustaining kin links over long periods of time.
* The resident male who fathers a litter doesn’t always abandon its family. In fact, this book, through proper evidences shows that the resident male plays a role in raising the family.
* As protective as tigress is about her cubs, she can be forced to end their life in certain circumstances. There is a heart-breaking scene in the book where a tigress kills all three of her cubs by choking them because she couldn’t provide them with food and couldn’t carry them along any longer with her.
* In protected and undisturbed habitats like Ranthambhore, the tiger can flourish and reveal facets of its family life that few can imagine possible.
Aside from revealing some important information about the life of a tiger, this book is also charming to read. It isn’t fast-paced. But it certainly is gripping. I felt like I was right there beside Thapar as he observed and documented the lives of these tigers. Descriptions of the tiger hunting its quarry are thrilling. There are a few scenes where you can almost see the tiger, with its great yellow and black stripes, inserting its canines in the throat of the deer and bringing it down.
Another part I loved was Thapar sitting in the verandah of Jogi Mahal (an old government rest house inside the forest premises), overlooking the Padam Talao, and observing the tigress Noon along with her cubs for days. The tigers drink from the lake, rest by its banks and hunt whenever they can, sometimes even in the lake waters. These were such captivating images that spending some time at Jogi Mahal is now one of my life’s goals.
Thapar concludes the book by presenting a grim picture of the tiger’s destiny in our country. Sample this: at the turn of the last century, we had about 40,000 tigers in the Indian wild and now we have barely 1500 left. Years and years of mindless hunting and poaching has brought the tiger to the brink of extinction and now there is no coming back from it. Human greed has now ensured that the tiger will certainly be extinct. All we can do is delay it for as long as possible.
The Secret Life of Tigers is an important book. It is perhaps the first one to record the family life and myriad facets of the behaviour of the wild tiger in such details. It is also a delightful read if you have any interest in the tiger. Thapar writes with great lucidity and erudition and you can sense his deep love for the forests and the tigers in his writing. This is a book that every nature lover would love. It is short, filled with vital information and is beautiful in the way it captures the essence of a magnificent beast.
Reading this book was akin to reliving a long-cherished dream. I am absolutely certain I will keep this one for posterity. Back to my dreams of tigers now. After reading this book, they have only become more vivid.
May 18, 2018
Engrossing. Places you right in the heart of Ranthambore !
January 28, 2019
Nice Book to have in shelf.
The author has put efforts to study the secret life of tigers & jolted the down the secret life in simple & flowing manner.
The author has put efforts to study the secret life of tigers & jolted the down the secret life in simple & flowing manner.
May 23, 2020
I remember watching the TV documentary made by Valmik Thapar about the tigers of Ranthambore back in ???? possibly the late 80's/early 90's (eeesh, when I was young anyway!!) The documentary blew me away and I remember thinking what a truly lovely man Thapar was; passionate, animated, motivated and truly awed (him and me both) by these amazing big cats.
The book of Tigers: The Secret Life is equally awe-inspiring. The photographs are phenomenal and the stories told about each of the Ranthambore tigresses and their cubs are vibrant and comprehensive.
I absolutely loved this book and found it educational and rousing.
If you like big cats or are interested in the conservation of wildlife, then read this.
The book of Tigers: The Secret Life is equally awe-inspiring. The photographs are phenomenal and the stories told about each of the Ranthambore tigresses and their cubs are vibrant and comprehensive.
I absolutely loved this book and found it educational and rousing.
If you like big cats or are interested in the conservation of wildlife, then read this.
May 15, 2013
very nice book. great to read how 7 cubs grow up and how their mother cares for them, as do their father. it's not only happiness in the book, there are some sad parts too which remind us how importanytit is to make a change in the tigers their destimy before it is too late and this magnificent animal won't be around anymore. very nice read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews