Strange Encounters: What We See and What We Miss | Evolve Back Kabini

A safari is a small window into the vast and intricate world of the wild. Two hours in an open vehicle, driving through the forest is barely enough to scratch the surface of the lives that unfold there. Most times, safaris can feel like an educational tour for the uninitiated. Species and names once spotted and committed to memory with a life list. A collector’s hobby. Only, we are collecting memories of sight. On rare occasions, we get some drama. A small piece of a larger story plays out in front of us but we realise we only get a small window of time to catch it. And so, we long to return, hoping for another peek, another piece of the puzzle.

The safari into Kabinithat afternoon had been quiet. The forest, wrapped in warmth, had been exceptionally quiet. There was quiet inside the vehicle too, but you could hear the collective disappointment. Then, in a small clearing, there were two small herds of herbivores. Nothing too exciting. They were a little far too. On a lucky day full of sightings, we would have just driven past. But we had nothing much to look forward to. So the driver stopped. A herd of Sambar deer was browsing through the vegetation on the right, while a scattered herd of Gaur grazed to our left.

A young sambar fawn, its coat laced with a bright shade of orange in the afternoon sun, stood at the edge of the undergrowth, ears sticking forward. It barely moved but its body pointed to a definite direction as though with purpose. A few feet away, a gaur calf, about half the size of the fawn, but doubly curious, was moving towards the fawn. They had some features of resemblance, the colour of their coat most conspicuous. Perhaps that’s why they had noticed each other.

Two young creatures, born into different worlds, yet drawn by the same instinct: curiosity. The fawn took a cautious step forward, then paused. The calf took a few more steps. For a moment, they stood there, reading each other, their heads tilting slightly as if weighing an invisible question—who are you?

Their mothers stood nearby, grazing, watching, but not intervening. There was something striking about their quiet presence. Not tense, not anxious—just observant. They knew the forest’s rules well enough to recognise safety. Would they have allowed the same if, instead of a gaur calf, the fawn had approached a wild dog pup? Or if, instead of a sambar fawn, it was a jackal pup trotting toward the calf? Hell might have broken loose first. The boundaries of trust in the wild are a curious mix of instinct and learned wisdom.

This moment between the fawn and the calf reminded me of old stories—folk tales where animals forge unlikely friendships, where the stories explore wild animals as complex beings with relationships, with choices, with the ability to recognise kinship beyond their own kind. But does this really happen in the wild? How far did this curious exploration go? Did the sambar fawn and the gaur calf meet again? Did they form a fleeting bond in those few moments, recognizing something familiar in each other? We will never know. The forest does not reveal all its stories, nor does it repeat them for us.

After a few tense moments, the gaur calf almost found itself in the middle of the Sambar herd, with even some older deer participating in this curiosity. But all of a sudden, the calf lost its nerve and ran back to the safety of its mother, who had her back to the entire drama as though nothing had happened.

It was time for us to move on, as the warm air had magically turned chilly while we were caught up in this episode. Unfortunately, there was going to be no sequel where we could thread the story from where we left off. Evening came quickly, and we had to clock out at the forest gate.

But this time we leave with something more than a checklist. We leave with a piece of an unfinished story, questions that linger long after the dust has settled on the trail. We hold these questions close like carrying home a shiny pebble from the beach. Because the forest didn’t just offer facts. It offered us wonder.

Continue your booking