The first week of May is usually my favourite week each year – and this week has once again proved my point. The grass is still long and green, fed by what has been one of the most generous rainy seasons in living memory. The pans are full, the seep lines still running, and the landscape holds that lush, saturated feel that feels almost borrowed from the depths of summer. Yet the mornings now have a new edge to them. The air is crisper, the light softer, and there is that unmistakable feeling that winter is beginning to find its footing.
On the leopard front, for me, the Nkuwa Female stole the show this week, which has predominantly been a week packed with lion and wild dog sightings. The Nkhuma Breakaway Male and Female are making their presence felt daily in the north.
Amazingly, there have been three different packs of wild dogs roaming around the reserve, which added their own electric energy to proceedings. The large herd of buffalo have been a constant, and let’s not forget the abundance of elephant, all set against a backdrop that still looks more like March than May. The water, the light, the abundance — it has all made for a very full week behind the lens.
Let us know your favourites in the comments section below.
Enjoy This Week In Pictures…
Perfect symmetry, two cows, two calves, both wanting to suckle
Almost comical in their mannerisms, this troop of baboons grooming themselves in the road kept us entertained for hours. Not a group of animals we see often, keeping very much to the thick riparian vegetation along the river.
A young infant baboon clings to its mother’s stomach for protection as they are carried around on the daily wanderings of the troop.
The giant kingfishers at the causeway have presented some amazing photographic opportunities this week. This pair (male on the left, female on the right) shows the distinction between the sexes well, with the male having the rufous colouration much higher up on the breast.
A Young male cheetah, from where we aren’t quite sure, has been seen on numerous occasions in the South West grasslands. With the soft light at the moment, and an impala in the distance, this portrait shot presented itself.
The abundance of green can sometimes be a hindrance for photography, or you can use it creatively to create depth in an image. Here, this elephant cow embedded in the greenery was quite appealing to me.
The Gijima males have been making their presence felt most mornings, with the bellowing roars adding huge excitement to the start of a drive from camp. With the sunrise and cool mornings, this was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to miss.
Soaring in after a pack of wild dogs on the move, this hooded vulture is also a dead giveaway of the direction that the pack is moving in.
Having an active hyena den is amazing. Getting to watch the intimate interactions between mother and cub, as well as the social dynamics at play within a hyena clan, is such an awesome opportunity to see what is often a very misunderstood animal.
With a rather moody sunrise on the Londolozi airstrip, I thought this silhouetted impala set the mood for the morning, which, not 10 minutes later, had the reserve in chaos with wild dogs.
The Nkhuma breakaway female and her brother can be heard most mornings calling in the northern parts of the reserve. Seemily getting comfortable in this vacant spot; it will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Needless to say, a lion backlit by the rising sun on a termite mound is a great way to start the day.
The Nkhuma breakaway male (brother to the female in the previous photo) watches the female on the mound. With some backlighting, I managed to capture this golden light on his mane.
An old male buffalo (often referred to as dagga boys) carries the weight of years in every line of his face. Few animals wear their age with quite the same dignity as an old buffalo bull. This particular male was trailing behind the herd, ousted by a younger, fitter male.
The Nkuwa Female, caught in a moment of quiet alertness. Those pale eyes miss nothing as a bateleur eagle soared overhead.
Raised as an intact litter, first in 7 years, who has now made her own history by raising two males to independence as an intact litter.
Spending a morning with a pack of 13 wild dogs, along the Sand River is nothing short of incredible. The pack hit the Sand River at full tilt, all chaos and joy and purpose at once. Wild dogs make everything look like it matters urgently.
This committee of white-backed vultures roosting in a dead knobthorn tree is one of those winter morning sights that make you stop and take it all in. Never a bad idea to turn the vehicle off.
An unlikely standoff on the airstrip. The wild dogs seems unbothered by the tower of giraffes ahead. The Londolozi airstrip has a way of making the improbable feel perfectly ordinary.
Ears forward, eyes sharp. The pack had taken over the airstrip for the morning, and the giraffes were not entirely sure what to make of it.
A stolen moment at the river’s edge. The Sand River, still running full from an extraordinary season of rain, has been drawing animals in from every corner of the reserve.
There is something almost noble in a wild dog’s profile. Africa’s most efficient predator, and one of its most endangered.
Commitment. Wild dogs never do anything by halves.
There is something almost cinematic about this one. The wild dogs small against the legs of the giraffes, everyone sizing everyone else up. The bush at its most theatrical.
I guess the airstrip belongs to whoever arrives first. On this particular morning, neither the wild dogs nor the giraffes seemed willing to concede the point.
The larger and rarer of the two oxpecker species: this yellowbilled oxpecker felt quite at home on the vacant back row of our vehicle amidst the herd of buffalo. Hopefully, no ticks will be found there, however.
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on The Week in Pictures #752