SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE GALLERIES

I nearly missed this lovely photograph as I was travelling in a Toyota Corolla sedan and quite low and on a dusty road along the Timbavati river towards the northern areas of the KNP. Something caught my eye – just saw a glimpse of the mane as the lion lifted its head-  just as I passed through a grassland. It was 80-100 yards away, midday and the lions were basking in the sunshine.  I don’t think i’d ever seen such a close match of colour between lion and grassland as that day.  The male lifted its head for a brief period and just flopped it down again, untroubled by my presence. If you follow the link at the bottom of this text it should bring you to the gallery containing a more perspective image of what I saw.

Brown bears are most widely spread in the world. A shoulder hump, a concave snout and smaller ears distinguish Brown Bears from Black Bears. Shoulder height of Brown Bears are up to 1.5m. This photo was one of many I took on a very enjoyable day on Katmai. I had taken a De Havilland Otter plane from Homer Spit  to the Katmai peninsula and landed on a small lake called “Just Enough” as it was just long enough for a landing but not long enough for takeoff with passengers. The day was spent with a guide traversing a plateau with many streams where a good number of brown bears were feeding off abundant salmon. We were always aware that we needed keep our distance (unobtrusive as possible) and be vigilant. A few bears came so close to us that I could not get a good contextual photo with the 300mm prime lens. This photo came about when we passed the sleeping bears but moved in consistent manner past them. I just stopped for a brief second to do this photo — as with all animals anything out of the ordinary like a change of movement or noise makes them alert. Conservation status — “of least concern”.

Ospreys and owls are the only raptors whose outer toe is reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind. European ospreys breed in Europe and migrate to Africa to overwinter. North American ospreys migrate to South America whereas Australasian ospreys do not migrate. This photo was taken from a hide built specifically for the purpose of really close photos of fishing ospreys. Nevertheless it all happens at incredible speed and usually the early hours of the morning in poor light which calls for being alert and quick to aim and fire the camera to accurately capture a great shot. I was very fortunate on this occasion as the heads of the osprey and fish are in good focus. Conservation status — “of least concern”

Large ear tufts are seen between August and November.

Life expectancy is 3 years (up to 7 years in the wild) and 75-85% of juveniles die during first winter. The Eurasian red squirrel numbers have decreased drastically due to the introduction by humans of the eastern grey squirrel from North America. (In North America the red squirrel is from the family Tamiascciurus with a number of genera). For this particular photo the squirrel needs encouragement to move on branches in a certain direction in the quest for food. Taking this photo requires considerable finesse and being alert as I’ve found them at the food source (nuts) whilst escaping my camera. Fortunately this one performed a great jump which shows up particularly well against the contrasting background. Conservation status — “endangered”.

Life expectancy is 3 years (up to 7 years in the wild) and 75-85% of juveniles die during first winter. The Eurasian red squirrel numbers have decreased drastically due to the introduction by humans of the eastern grey squirrel from North America. (In North America the red squirrel is from the family Tamiascciurus with a number of genera). Patience is required to get the background as well as the squirrel focus correct and furtunately these little creatures give one just a little time to get it right. This was taken on a nice sunny July morning at the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore. Taken with a Canon 5D MkIV (600mm f4 lens).  Conservation status — “endangered”

Females do much of the hunting together. Lions had been reintroduced to Addo not too long ago as Addo was originally established to protect a small number of African Elephant. This photo was taken from the carpark at this lookout. where there was only some African bush separating us from the lions. Clearly the lion was watching me intently. A ranger kept us on the straight and narrow as they know the behaviour of the lions. I quickly managed to get this lovely photo of a lion in great condition. Not much competition and fighting between the lions in Addo. Conservation status — “vulnerable”

Some see this zebra as one of the subspecies of the plains zebra. Its closest relatives in Southern Africa are the Mountain zebra and Hartmann’s mountain zebra. The Burchell’s zebra is the closest relative to the extinct Quagga and scientists are using DNA from chosen individuals in and attempt to bring back the Quagga (the Quagga Project).

The stripes are like fingerprints and specific to the individual zebra. The Burchell’s zebra stripes extend around the belly and are less prominent on the legs as seen on this image, whilst the mountain zebra differs (it is just the opposite — more pronounced on lower legs and less around belly).

This photo was most likely taken at the Nshawudam close to Mopani. Large herds of zebra tend to congregate there and I just needed to wait for my moment — pretty dusty and hot but thoroughly worthwhile!!

African White-backed vulture not to confuse it with Oriental white-backed vulture. The Zulu called vultures “Inge” which meant the one who purifies the land.

I spent about 2-3 hours at a dam not far from Skukuza taking many photographs. The wind was favourable so I enjoyed the vultures (Lapped and White-backed) and a Battaleur eagle taking turns in flying reconnaissance “missions” in the area and then coming back to land. My 800mm lens worked overtime!

There are a few other subspecies namely Asiatic, Northwest African, Sudan and Tanzanian cheetahs.

Cheetahs hunt by sight and are crepuscular (active at twilight) but they also hunt during the day and rest at night except on bright moonlit nights when they might also hunt. In so doing they try to avoid their main competitors. Adult females are rather solitary whilst males many times function in coalitions. They are frequently seen on elevated positions like termite mounds from where they can see their prey. They can reach a speed of 70km/h within 2 seconds from a standing start and chases are short with most being less than 200m as the cheetah can only maintain its full speed for about 500m.

This particular morning I left Satara early and headed east into the sun on the dusty Nwanedzi river road when I came across this lovely cheetah. It had its attention focussed past me and it kept still just long enough for me to get a few lovely shots in the morning sun.

I came across a farmer with a keen interest in the large cats and for his sanity, he said, had to get away from the farm regularly to get to Kruger and spend a few days chasing the cats in search of good photos. Later that morning I encountered him again on my way back — he had succeeded in tracking the cheetah for a while!!

It can survive for up to 15 years in the wild. It is a wader, spending most of its time standing in water waiting for prey. The Goliath heron does not migrate.

Everyone seemed to be attracted to the other side of the bridge but I noticed this Giant heron and I thought it would make a good photograph. I quite like the varieties of colours and the detail the camera managed to capture.

They are very solitary and one male overlaps about the territories of about three to four females. They prefer not too dense bush for hunting and river valleys are one of their favourite hunting areas. They would stalk from about 100 meters until about 5 meters from the prey and then attack them. Success- rate is usually about 1/5 depending on experience and the cover available.

The photographs of the leopard with the impala which it had just caught were taken from the Olifants River bridge just after 5 pm. There was a group of visitors enjoying the setting sun across the river when suddenly a rush of activity caught my eye. I saw what it was and grabbed my kit and ran to a closer position (some bridges one is permitted to disembark from your vehicle within demarcated areas). This particular photograph is very appealing in that the leopard looks very aggressive on looking at us as I’m sure might have felt his meal was somewhat threatened.

The first image I took was a minute or two after the leopard had actually caught the impala and it proceeded to drag the impala about 100 meters to a tree where it then rested and probably later that night pulled it up into the tree. (the leopard as well as the carcass of the impala were visible in the tree).