African Safaris

2008

I haven’t being doing a lot of photography lately. Facing a dearth of material, I chose to go back into the archives, looking for images I hadn’t previously posted.

Today’s pictures were taken in 2008, two years before I began my blog. I’m sharing wildlife photographs from some African safaris experiences with Rolande and friends, Pat and Barry Stewart. We did our touring and photography in three different locations, Monduro Camp in northern South Africa, and two other camps, Vumbura Plains and Mombo Camp near the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

We were fortunate to be accompanied by excellent guides for each of our three safaris. They were all very knowledgeable, skilled at finding and tracking the animals and very patient in finding the best opportunities for viewing and photographing them.

The goal of each guide was to ensure we had the opportunity to see all members of the “Big Five”: Rhinoceros, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Lion and Leopard.

They each pursued this goal with zeal. Seemingly, they considered it failure to not succeed. Today’s photographs include pictures of all five, beginning with this one featuring an adult Rhinoceros and what appears to be an offspring (hidden behind).

We waited two days before finding some elephants at our first camp. On the third day, our guide was alerted by another guide where elephants could be found. We located a fairly large herd and fell in behind them as they moved along. According to this bull in musth (elevated testerone levels), we were following too closely. He approached our vehicle, a Land Rover and for a heart-stopping moment, he expressed his vexation with our presence. Our guide, reading the bull’s body language assured us he was bluffing and we were not in danger. “Don’t panic” he said. “If I panic, then you can panic!” Very reassuring. Soon after, this enormous presence re-joined the herd. We followed cautiously at a much more respectful distance.

In response to a question I asked each of the guides, “Which of the “big five” is the most dangerous?” Their responses were unanimous, the Cape Buffalo. They don’t bluff! When they charge, they follow through.

Our guide for our final safari was fixated on finding Lachidima, a five-year old female leopard. Once he sighted her, he was able to track her to her lair, accompanied by her three cubs. He positioned us such that we could capture this photograph of her nursing them. (Look carefully beyond her face). Lachidima, was the subject of a National Geographic study. Two zoologists shadowed her from birth to the age of 4-5 years and documented her growth on film.

The final member of the “Big Five” is the lion, the “King of the Beasts”. This is not the best of the lion photos I had, but I like it for the story it tells. Shortly before shooting this picture, we had paused at a fair distance away. Despite the distance our guide noted the giraffes, but not the lion. He correctly surmised the presence of the lion from the behaviour of the giraffes. Their posture conveys a message to other animals that a predator is nearby. He referred to this as a “predator alert”.

As we approached the giraffes, we noticed the lion, enjoying a quiet respite, posing no imminent threat. The giraffes were at a safe distance, from which they could escape if the lion were he to come after them. They were safe and he knew it!

That’s it for the “big five”! Following are two more photos that I enjoyed capturing and still enjoy viewing. These two posed nicely for us; no particular reason for or meaning to this positioning.

Here’s a leopard resting on a tree branch in late afternoon, following an earlier hunt. According to our guide, the racket surrounding his presence was being sounded by a baboon troop. The leopard was done hunting for the day and we were informed that he had stashed his prey (tomorrow’s breakfast) nearby. We returned the following morning and sure enough, he was busy retrieving yesterday’s booty from a nearby treetop.

That’s it for today’s post. It was great holiday and a very interesting experience. We were able to see many animals and learn about their behaviours. It’s jungle out there!