He lost the trail and, as he circled around to find it again, he crested a
ridge where he paused to catch his breath. And this was when he heard it.
“This sound,” said Sokolov, “you cannot confuse it with anything else—
God willing you should never hear it. My partner was a hundred yards
away, and he said that when he heard that roar he was stunned; it was all
he could do not to start running.”
Sokolov paused, trying to find words to describe a sensation that is
essentially indescribable. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas could have helped
him here: on the African savanna, she explains in The Tribe of Tiger,
when thunder rolls, lions will roar back. What other creature, besides the
lion, the tiger, and the whale, can answer Creation in its own language?
“I will use an analogy,” said Sokolov, trying his best to articulate what
he heard and felt on that ridge. “Every melody is based on the same seven
notes, but some melodies make you happy, some make you sad, and some
can terrify you. Well, this was a roar which makes your blood go cold in
your veins and your hair stand up on your head. You could call it a
‘premonition of death.’ When I heard it, I thought, ‘That tiger is going to
kill somebody,’ but the wind was blowing and my back was turned, so at
first I didn’t realize it was going to be me.”
Nor had Sokolov realized that there was more than one tiger. The
tigress he was tracking was in heat and a large male had been tailing her;
while backtracking on the trail of the female, Sokolov had run into the
male. When a tigress comes into estrus, a kind of pheromone-induced
insanity follows wherever she goes, and this tiger was out of its mind
with lust. He had probably fought for his position and he had a lot to look
forward to: once the tigress has reviewed and accepted a suitor, the two
may copulate twenty times a day for a week or more. Individual
encounters are brief and loud and, once consummated, the tigress may
wheel around and club her mate savagely in the face. It is hard to tell
from the human vantage whether this is a sign of irritation or tigerish
affection.
When the tiger spotted Sokolov, it may have perceived him as a
competitor, a threat, or simply as an obstacle, but by the time Sokolov
realized his mistake, it was too late. “The tiger roared again,” he said.
ron
(Ron)
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