"Michael Tillman's meeting the tiger" in Robert James Waller's SLOW WALTZ IN CEDAR BEND is not only "a good read" but it actually happened Dr. Waller, while he was "researching" a portion of the novel.
(Part of SLOW WALTZ is set at a national park on an island in India.)
Prof. Waller said, in a televised interview on BOOKMAN, on PBS TV, that, "The interview with the tiger happened in exactly that way. Both of us were too astounded to do more than carefully examine each other at 'near touching range'; I was too entranced with her to be frightened, UNTIL LATER. Then I was frightened out of my wits."
(Having had "a close encounter of the 2nd kind" with El Tigre in USASOUTHCOM in 1991, I can relate. - When one realizes how close that one came to "being invited to late-night supper" by a predator, "it gets your attention". = Jaguars consider "homo sapiens" as "slow-moving, easily caught, tasty protein" and nothing more than that. Furthermore, hand-size paw-prints IN your tent and next to your bunk will "keep you up nights".)
yours, satx