This striking portrait of a stalking tiger did not come from Simon Combes' imagination. The internationally famous artist of African wildlife actually saw him-in India's Bandhavgarh National Park, formerly the hunting pre-serve of the Maharajah of Rewa. But now it is the tiger that hunts. He stalks the sambur deer and wild boar that come to graze and drink from the small, precious poois of water.

"The early sun washed the landscape with golds, reds, and ochres," Simon, ever the artist, reported to us. "The air was tinder-dry, and the grass crackled noisily beneath the feet of the elephant on which I sat. Then he emerged, stalking straight toward us, his eyes totally intent.

Some time later, Combes was able to look back upon this unnerving experience with a certain objectivity. "I can just imagine what it must have been like for some traveler to look up and see the tiger advancing toward him," he says with a laugh. "Thankfully, I was watching from a safe haven. Even so, I was reminded of William Blake's famous verse The Tiger, which so aptly describes the animal's 'fearful symmetry."

Join Simon Combes on that hot summer day in India.Experience your own close encounter with a stalking tiger's Fearful Symmetry.