A few days ago I was watching the River Rapti at Ghatgain from River View Lodge, high on the bank-side. It was early afternoon. Suddenly a movement caught my eye. A large male Sambar Deer which had been quietly grazing on our side of the river, was bounding towards the river in a hurry. A large red dog was chasing it. The deer was well ahead and I thought he would escape by jumping into the river and swimming to the other side. But both animals disappeared below the river bank, and although I watched carefully, I could see no sign of the deer swimming across.
After a few minutes, my wife and I decided to go and have a look to see what had happened. We approached the bank slowly, and looked over the edge. What we saw surprised us. About sixty meters away, in a patch of water hyacinth at the edge of the river, the dog had cornered the deer – the deer had backed up to the water’s edge and was turning towards the excited dog, who was rushing around barking and trying to get close. Every time the dog got close, the deer lowered his fine set of antlers and lunged towards the dog. There was no doubt that the antlers could have inflicted severe wounds on the dog. But the dog moved quickly out of range and continued to harry the deer, splashing around the hyacinth flowers and sometimes cowering down in a deeper puddle.
I wondered why the deer had not jumped into the river. Perhaps his instinct told him that the balance of advantage lay with him if he stayed on land, that if he started to swim the dog could also swim alongside him and even get close to his throat and the deer would not be able to use his antlers to defend himself. Anyway, the deer had made his decision and it was paying off for him at the moment. The dog could not get close and ran the risk of injury from the antlers. The deer could not swim and was cornered but able to defend himself. It was a classic stand-off, and I wondered how long this could go on. I felt that the dog would tire of this game, and he would not win the fight on his own. There were no other dogs in sight to come to his assistance. It was early afternoon and the heat was increasing. I did not think the dog had the ability to outlast the larger and heavier deer in this stand-off. However, I was not able to see the outcome because my wife and I decided that it could go on for a long time, and we were not prepared to wait out in the open sun for perhaps 2 or 3 hours to see the outcome.
We returned to our room at the Lodge and went to sleep.
C. Tim Taylor May 2018