We got back to the lodge for lunch and Diane retreated to bed. An upset stomach. The scourge of all travellers. She’d been getting increasingly unwell all morning and now could not face an afternoon of running around fields hunting deer. Sometimes the best thing to do is stop eating for 24 hours and go to bed if you feel like it.
Me, the guide and a driver set off to find deer. Not deer, but antelope. Deer have antlers, antelope have horns. The guide explained this to me. I had to go look it up and fell into a small rabbit hole. What I now know is that deer have branching antlers that are shed yearly. Antelopes have permanent, unbranching horns (or pronghorns) that grow continuously. Female antelopes often have horns too. This answer is not complete without an explanation of the difference between horns and antlers. Both are bony headgear on ruminants. Horns have a permanent bone core covered in keratin (like fingernails) and grow continuously. Antlers are solid bone, shed and regrown yearly, initially covered in “velvet” skin. So, in summary:
- Deer – antlers – shed annually – men only (apart from reindeer)
- Antelope – horns – grow continuously – both sexes
What we were after had horns. In particular, we were after the Indian antelope or blackbuck. They were known to run around wild in the farmland not too far from our lodge.
Blackbuck are herbivores and graze on low grasses. Occasionally they will browse. Grazing is feeding on low-growing plants like grass. Browsing is eating higher vegetation such as leaves, shoots, and twigs from trees and shrubs.
We drove for about 30 minutes and then set off down some rough farm tracks apparently at random. The car stopped and my guide suggested we continue on foot. The driver settled down for a nap while the pair of us went off along the field boundaries. I think the guide may have been tipped off because just round the other side of a farmhouse we first spotted a small herd. One male and four smaller, lighter coloured females. They were quite a distance away, so we started stalking them.
Blackbucks can run up to 80 kmph. If they spooked, they could quickly vanish over the horizon. We moved slowly. Tried not to make any noise. Tried to keep some cover between us. It sort of worked. The herd never panicked. But at the same time, we never got closer than a field. They would graze for a while and look our way. Then, whenever it seemed we were making progress, they would up the pace for a short while and put another couple of fields between us. Eventually we gave up. The light was starting to fade and we had made ourselves a good walk back to the car. While walking back, I spotted a buzzard perching in a tree. It was too far away for a good photograph but even so I thought it looked good in the evening sun.
Next morning, we were up quite early for the drive to Agra. Diane was feeling a lot better and managed a small breakfast. While sitting outside with our coffee after breakfast we noticed some bats hanging high in the trees. Indian flying fox, also known as the greater Indian fruit bat. At 1.6 kg they are India’s largest bat and one of the largest in the world. They are nocturnal and mostly eat fruit such as mangoes and bananas. We took a few pictures and then we were off to see the Taj again.
