Mike Birkhead–longtime producer-director of wildlife documentaries (grounded by no less than a doctorate in zoology 
from Oxford), who served as co-director, co-producer, and co-writer of “Legendary Tigers Of India,” an episode of Nature that premiered on Earth Day—seems disinclined to highlight the credentials populating his long résumé. Rather, he spends much of this interview enthusiastically touting Valmik Thapar, a monumental, lifelong tiger expert whose protective passion for the cats manifested in endlessly observing, photographing and filming them (The films were often in collaboration with Birkhead.) The conversation echoed the film, which ends up profiling Thapar nearly to the degree it ends up documenting the history of India’s Ranthambore’s National Park, and the rising and falling fortunes of the tigers who’ve lived there. Protracted decades of hunting had decimated the tiger population there, prompting the animals to become reclusive, and flipping their internal clocks to become nocturnal. But owing to the protection afforded by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s ban on hunting in the early 1970s, the numbers rebounded, expanding a group of about a dozen tigers into a coterie of 70-plus cats. However, Birkhead
explained the Ranthambore realm was defined by a cyclical pattern for its tiger tenants, noting that “things went wrong” again in the 1980s—another plunge in the population. The clear culprit was horrifically pervasive poaching—rendered particularly horrific by the tigers, now having become habituated to humans getting quite close, were shot at point blank range. Thapar mentions this detail in a voive-over in the film; Birkhead mentions it in our interview, underscoring how badly Thapar felt about it, and that he blamed himself. Seeking to clarify critical chronology, I ask Birkhead about the making of “Legendary Tigers Of India” relative to Thapar before he passed away in May of 2025. Birkhead confirms that Thapar was not only around for all the filmmaking, but also saw—and loved—the finished documentary. We conclude by chatting about pivotal Ranthambore tigers, including Padmini, Machli, Noor, and Arrowhead. (https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature, https://mikebirkhead.com/) [Photos: Birkhead by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images…Noor & cubs by Valmik Thapar…Padmini by Valmik Thapar… Valmik Thapar by Mike Birkhead Associates]
COMEDY CORNER: Jim Gaffigan’s “Animal Lover” (https://www.jimgaffigan.com/)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” Greg Roy’s
“Mother Nature” (Happy Earth Day!...Tropical Heatwave!), instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: We didn’t play “Name That Animal Tune” today.
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