Well, I’m back in Kaziranga! It’s great to be back in India, one of my favorite countries on Earth.

The adventure began almost immediately. Our first rhino encounter had the animal charging at us. I must admit that it took a couple of days to get used to this again. Our new jeep has roll bars, but no bars on the “cage” in the back where I work from, so psychologically it was a bit uncomfortable at first.

Although the forest guards here are incredibly dedicated and work 24/7 (I have never seen them sleep!), soon after I arrived, poachers killed another adult rhino. This is a tough park to guard, sandwiched between the Brahmaputra River on one side and a major roadway on the other, giving lots of access. There are a lot of rhinos within view of the road, so it’s not much of a challenge for poachers to scramble away with their prize. Also, the grasses are at their tallest this time of year, just before they’re burned back to keep the forest from encroaching. The 10- to15-foot elephant grass makes it easy to hide.

Though it took 24 hours, we finally got permission to see the poached rhino. We do not normally walk anywhere in Kaziranga—it’s usually prohibited because it’s too dangerous—but the only way to get to this particular area was on foot. It was a bit tense the first time we went in, with rhinos and elephants nearby, but we were accompanied by five armed guards.

The ground around the rhino was crisscrossed with tiger tracks. It looked like two had been feeding on the carcass the night before. So I decided to set up a remote camera to try and photograph the cats if they came back for another meal. Sure enough, we got a mom and her cub looking at the camera that night!

Once I saw that they wouldn’t be scared off by the flashes, I decided to put up an additional camera and see if I could get more images. But each time we checked back, an animal had knocked down the camera traps: a tiger swiped at one, a rhino pushed another one over. Today a group of elephants came through and dragged one of the cameras, along with flashes and cords, about 50 yards away through the grass.  Bummer. We lost a lens and two cords.

After some technical adjustments, WOW—a huge male tiger came in, sat down and ate from both sides of the rhino for 34 minutes—yielding over 400 images! Let’s see what happens tonight.

I have a great team on this trip. “Konwar the Incredible” is back as my guide and driver. He is so knowledgeable about Kaziranga, and helps me find great situations to photograph every day. I have a new assistant, Gabe DeLoach, a tech wiz who keeps everything organized and comes to the job with a lot of energy and boundless enthusiasm. Douglas Chadwick, the writer on the story, and his wife Karen are also here. Doug is a wildlife biologist and an incredibly prolific writer who has produced over 50 stories for National Geographic, as well as countless books. He brings many years of experience, and it’s great to have the chance to work with him in the field—usually I’m on my own. I’ve collaborated with Doug before—including on our snow leopard story that will appear in the June issue.

Another exciting addition to my work here is that we were just given access to Baho Beel, a remote area that is off-limits to the tourists that are now all over other parts of the park. We entered another world by visiting this place the other day. It looks kind of like east Africa: female rhinos with their calves, sambar deer leaping through the wooded areas, wild buffalo and pig, barking deer, and a wide array of bird species everywhere.

Perhaps because they don’t often see people, the rhinos here are pretty testy. We were charged 10 times in the first three hours! Doug has spent a lot of time in Africa throughout his career, and he is amazed at how these animals react. One rhino was laying down relaxing when it saw us—in a second it was up, with dust flying, coming at us in a full-blown charge.

I’ll continue to shoot in this new area. Stay tuned for what comes next!

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