By Big Fish Expeditions Trip Leader Dario Nessi
I had the privilege to lead the very first Big fish expedition in India to search for tigers, rhinos and much more. The tour was an overall great success, we managed to see virtually all the main species and also got some surprises we didnt expect!
Land of Tigers
Our tour started in Tadoba national park, which holds the highest number of any Tigerpark in the world. But no matter which place you go, the reality is, that the tiger is an elusive animal with a huge territoral range, so it is a species you have to work for.
We got lucky and saw our first tiger within 30 minutes of the first morning. It was a shy male that was feeding on a deer kill behind some bushes. We spent a reasonable amount of time waiting if he will come out at some point, giving us an angle to take the first photos. Unfortunately he was too timid to fully show himself or just was too busy feasting. But still, seeing him through the brush, tearing apart the carcass and hearing the bones crush, was exciting. Not a bad start to the trip.
The next days we spent trakking tigers, with the knowledge of the local guides and drivers, we used all the tricks in the book, to locate and get close to some tigers. The locals are very good at reading the pugmarks of the tigers, to get an idea where they currently might be. But you shouldn’t just only keep your eyes open, but also carefully listen to the sounds of the jungle. One of the best ways to find a tiger, is to listen to ist prey. A series of sharp alarm calls by a deer or a monkey, only means one thing : there is a huge predator around.
We saw a bunch of different tigers over the course of the next days. From a bit of a distance, we observed tigers roaming around in their stunning natural habitat, we saw a failed hunting attempt on a spotted deer and we saw two 8 month old cubs playfighting with eachother.
The groups highlight though, was a beautiful encounter at sunset with a handsome male called « Veer ». Veer was taking a nap behind some thick vegetation, but we knew, that he was just stalking some prey and was likely to move again any time soon. While the anticipation rose, the excitement was huge, when this enormous tiger suddenly walked towards one of our vehicles, passing it by less then two meters. He was extremely calm and layed down just a few meters away from us, perfectly posing and grooming himself, preparing for the evening hunt.
Side characters
While Tadoba is mainly known for its tigers, they are not the only large and charismatic animals, roaming through these forests.
Sloth bear
My personal favourite animal from these areas is the slightly goofy looking sloth bear.
Eventhough they look cute and harmless, these bears are known, to regularly win territorial altercations with tigers.
We had a very cool sighting of a mother with her soon to be independent cub. They were foraging along the road in thick brush, but then suddenly decided to cross over directly in front of us.
Dhole (asiatic wild dog)
While the african wild dog is widely liked and recognized, the «dhole» or asiatic wild dog, isnt as known by many people. In my opinion though, a very cool species, that I am always happy to find. Dholes live in small packs and are almost always on the hunt. So most encounters with these animals will be brief, or having to follow them while they are fastly moving through the forest. I was very surprised by the encounter we had with a pack of 4, that were resting right next to the road, interacting and playing with eachother.
Tiger Food
Animals that you will most likely see a ton of in Tadoba are Spotted deer, Sambar deer, wild boar and grey langur. A forest that is able to sustain the highest number of tigers in the world, must be full of prey animals. These animals are so abundant, we dont waste too much time photographing them, because we are always on the lookout for tigers. But ofcourse inbetween searches, we take a moment to capture them aswell.
Some more uncommon animals we have seen where some barking deer, the nilgai antelope, the indian Gaur (inmdian bison), two different species of mongoose and we even got a quick look at the very rare « chousingha », the four horned antelope.
Land of Giants
After some intense days of searching for tigers and more, we left the red dust of Tadoba behind us and flew far north east towards Kaziranga. A complete change of scenery in many ways.
Kaziranga is a wild place, full of lush green jungle, healthy wetlands and rivers and huge patches of extremely tall elephant grass. Its called elephant grass, because elephants can literally disappear in it, it is so tall.
This world heritage site was the saviour for the Indian one horned rhino as a species, which was almost extinct a century ago. But conservation efforts in Kaziranga made it possible for the one horned rhino to bounce back. Nowadays Kaziranga holds roughly 75% of the worldwide population of this rhino and even makes reintroduction in other areas possible, because the number of individuals is so healthy.
And indeed, it was rhino galore. If you are after stunning photos of one horned rhinos, this is the place. We got so many different photo opportunities, while they were feeding, drinking, fighting, courtship, nursing etc.
But also big herds of elephants, asiatic water buffalos and swamp deer, call Kaziranga their home. We had great views of all these species, but worth pointing out was a large herd of elephants, that was slowly moving through the elephant grass, towards our vehicles and then crossing over a small stream, just a few meters away from us.
Kaziranga held another few surprises for us though. Over the days we spent there, we had 3 sightings of tigers still, which we really didnt expect. While Kaziranga holds a respectable amount of tigers, the focus for us here are on the even bigger animals and also tiger sightings here are much more difficult.
Eventhough these sightings didnt make for any award winning photo opportunities, it was still exciting seeing them in this very different environment.
We also had some unexpected sightings of smooth coated otters and a rare greater hogbadger (which unfortunately fled so quickly from us while our car was still moving, nobody managed to even get a record shot of it).
Primate Side-Quest
While we see a wide variety in Tadoba and Kaziranga, the selection of primates is limited to the grey langurs and the occasional rhesus macaques that you see while driving through the villages.
Thats why one morning we woke up really early in the morning and drove to a patch of protected forest further east. In this forest you can find 6 species of primates during the day, if you are lucky.
We were lucky that we found our main primate immediately close to the rangers station, which usually isnt the case. Our main focus on this morning was the only ape in India, the western hoolock gibbon. We observed a family of 6 gibbons, including a young baby, while they were starting to get active and starting to feed. The early morning hours of the day are the best to see them, because soon after, they will start moving fast through the jungle, which is very dense and almost impossible to follow them.
Aside from the gibbons, we saw rheses macaques, assamese macaques, pigtailed macaques and a group of capped langurs.
Even a few malayan giant squirrels made an appearance.
Bird life of India
While the birds are not a focus on our tour, it is impossible to go to India and not photograph a ton of birds as bycatch, because the variety is so high. From birds of prey, to colourful kingfishers and parakeets and little owls, there is always a bird to look at, while searching for the more elusive mammals.
My personal favourite bird we had great views of this time, is the great hornbill. A stunning and iconic looking bird.
Opportunistic Herping (reptile watching)
Even though this time of the year, which we chose for good mammal sightings, is not good for reptiles, since it is way too dry and cold, we still managed to see a handfull of reptiles, like mugger crocodiles, bronzeback tree snakes, geckos and bengal monitors.
Bengal Tiger & Indian Rhino Photography Tour 2026!
It was an incredible adventure! I am very much looking forward to next years trip, to return to the land of tigers and giants, to see what kind of surprises will be in store for us.
Join our next Bengal Tiger and Indian Rhino Photography Tour! February 9-18, 2026
