Pench has a core habitat area of 260 square km along with a buffer area of 480 square km. There are approximately 44 tigers in the reserve.
In addition to the tigers, the reserve has leopard, dhole, jungle cat, civets, wolves, striped hyena, sloth bear, golden jackal, chital, sambar, gaur, nilgai, wild pig, mongoose, porcupine, primates, muntjac, chowsingha and chinkara.
Located in the buffer zone of the park with access to the park via the Mukki Gate. The resort has 15 cottages and 8 tents.
We had room 11, good hot water supply. No hairdryer, no socket next to bed unless you unplugged the lamp! WiFi in reception area but kept dropping out.
Buffet style, lots of choice, special meals prepared for me.
Nice grounds with pond, lots of birds & butterflies.
The 2 lodge vehicles were more spacious, hired vehicles less so. Lodge naturalist was friendly and very knowledgeable.
For our first drive in Pench we found it was a little cooler than Tadoba. We entered the park at 6:15am with little expectations of seeing a tiger… or much else. We visited Pench in 2009 and other than some nice sightings of birds and jackals we didn’t remember seeing much else.
Golden Jackal - Pench
Today we had the lodge naturalist and he was great at spotting and stopping for birds and other wildlife. One of our first sightings was a jackal that posed nicely on a fallen tree.
The golden jackal is an adaptable and opportunistic forager, feeding on a wide range of food sources, and active both day and night. Although it may scavenge on carrion, it is also a skilled hunter of birds and mammals, up to the size of young deer, and also takes reptiles, fish, insects and fruit.
We stopped for langur monkey, to watch some spotted deer that had been spooked by a jackal and several birds including grey hornbill.
By breakfast time it had started to heat up and we took our thin fleeces off for the remainder of the drive. Breakfast was more often than not laid out on the bonnet of the vehicle (which was more often than not very hot from all the driving), best to grab your sandwiches quickly before they dried out!
After breakfast, we went to a view point over Pench River. The early rains had failed so the river was very low. We watched some wild boar cross the river bed from one side to the other. Onwards we stopped for more birds and jackals, including one that appeared to be carrying part of a spotted deer hide.
Both Alan & I spotted something unusual in the water as we crossed a stream. Take a look at the pictures below, looks like it could be a snake with a fish, what do you think?
Next a grey nightjar was spotted in a tree, our first view of it was from underneath and you could just see the edge of its wing, when the vehicle was repositioned we were able to get a side view of it. Looks obvious when you zoom in, but seriously it was difficult to spot!
Onwards towards the park exit, we stopped to watch some grooming monkeys and our one only sighting of a gaur in Pench.
Meals at the lodge were served buffet style, but my meals were plated for me do avoid me eating anything containing milk. I was given rice, fries and curry each meal, fortunately a favourite combination for me! In addition they made me special desserts including banana fritters… again another favourite!
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