We have photos from a new contributor, Rachel Wilmoth. Her notes:
I’m (mainly) a lurker on your website, and was inspired by the readers’ wildlife photos posted yesterday, Oct. 19. My fiance and I went to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe last month. The wildlife and scenery were astounding. I’d like to share some photos.
The herd of African elephants (Loxodanta africana), lazing lion, zebras, elephants eating, and giraffes drinking were all in Etosha National Park, in Namibia.
Lions (Panthera leo)
Plains zebra (Equus quagga, formerly Equus burchellii, per Wikipedia)
Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis):
The sand dune is Dune 45, and is located in the Sossusvlei, in Namibia:
The penguins are African penguins (Spheniscus demersus), and the photo was taken at Boulders Beach, in Zuid-Afrika. I was lucky to get the shot I did, as they started squabbling two seconds later:
The great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus) were at Walvis Bay, in Namibia. They look large, but only weigh 3-6 kilos:
There was a large colony of Cape Fur Seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) at Cape Cross. They’re loud (and the young ones sound like goats). They also reek to high heaven. The picture is of a seal pup:
The small frog was found in the Okavango Delta. [Readers: any IDs?]
The pictures hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) and the sunset were taken from the Chobe river:
The photos big male lion and the prides of lionesses, as well as the water buffalo, and antelope (possibly a kudu, but I’m not 100% certain) were all taken in Chobe national park. Some lionesses were eating an elephant that had died of illness. By the way the antelope was just running to run, no predators were hot on its heels.
Water buffalo (Syncerus caffer):
Readers: any ID on this antelope?
Finally, the last picture is of an aerial shot over the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls. The flow of water from the Zambezi was nearing its annual low point.
The antelope is probably a common eland (Taurotragus oryx)
Not a female kudu…?
That’s what I wasn’t sure about. It could a female kudu, but we saw so many species of antelope that it’s hard to keep them all straight.
The eland is much bulkier, so I personally doubt it is that.
Plus both male and female elands have horns…
Judging from the facial markings–white patch over eye, three white patches along cheek–I’d say it was a female kudu.
A female Nyala maybe?
Nope – more like a kudu. Sorry!
A long way to travel but certainly worth it when you can bring back these photos. I could only see the pelicans while sitting at home.
Great photos, Rachel! I particularly like your pelicans and zebras.
And I liked the elephants and lions. Yes, great shots! Thanks.
Very nice collection of images, thank you!
Thank you all! The lions and elephants were my favorites, but I enjoyed seeing all of the wildlife.
Superb!
What a great collection of photos! Thank you so much for sharing, and thanks also to Benjamin Taylor for his photos and inspiration. There was so much to admire here, but what I particularly appreciated in both sets was the inclusion of the landscape settings. Having never been to South Africa, they really helped me picture the surrounds of these fascinating fellow inhabitants of our planet. Such a memorable trip! So happy for you and your fiance, too.
Spectacular!
Wow! that is an adventure! The antelope does look like a greater kudu.
Hi, I’m the fiance Rachel was referring to. We saw the most magnificent nature on our Southern Africa trip. The full collection of photos and video clips is at
http://dutsm1219.tudelft.net/Africa2015/
Best wildlife pics are from Etosha, Chobe and the Walvisbaai boat trip.
The link is to just a university computer I used for this, it may go dead in a while wen that computer gets another purpose. And video is 1280×780 pixels, you’ll need a desktop/laptop screen or full-sized tablet for those to be any good, I think. Video clips sizes are mostly ~10 MB, but there are 3 clips of elephants drinking or playing in the water that are ~100 MB.
What a great way to show all the photos and events. Love the seals. I would pass up the helicopter ride but if they had a plane with wings I’ll go in a minute.
We also did a short plane ride over the Okavango. But the helicopter ride was actually the less bumpy of the two.
Very nice photographs! It looks like you had a great trip.
I went on a very similar trip myself recently (I’m the person who sent Jerry the other set of southern Africa photos).
It’s uncanny how many of our photographs are similar – some of the ones from Sossusvlei and Deadvlei are almost identical!
Are yours online somewhere, beyond the bunch in Jerry’s post?
Yep! You can find them here:
http://taylorgraphicdesign.co.uk/southern-africa-2015
As I mentioned, I was struck by the similarities – e.g.
Your Dune 45 photo
My Dune 45 photo
Your Deadvlei photo
My Deadvlei photo
But I guess these sights are so impressive that everyone feels compelled to take a photograph!
Anyway, I sure hope you enjoyed your trip as much as I did – what an incredible part of the world southern Africa is!
Rachel and I enjoyed Southern Africa very, very much.
Your pictures are beautiful too. And your colors are nicer than mine. I used a fairly standard camera and no computer color enhancements afterwards. Maybe I’ll check out if color enhancement makes them a bit brighter like yours.
And I must admit to bit of jealousy at your leopard and rhino pictures. Those are magnificent, and so close up. We only saw one of each, both from quite a distance.
I shoot all of my photos in the RAW format (which produces very dull, flat looking photos, but captures the maximum amount of detail from the camera sensor), then I use Adobe Lightroom to bring up the colour and contrast.
The first leopard was a rescued orphan at a nature reserve, which is why we were able to get so close to him. The second leopard was genuinely wild, and we were very lucky to find him/her.
We were also lucky to get several groups of black rhino close to the vehicle in several of the parks, and we got pretty close to the white rhino on a walking safari, as they are much less likely to charge than the black rhino. At least that’s what the guide told us!
I loved the flamingo and pelican photos you took – we didn’t get to see any of those close up at all, and I really wanted to see a honey badger, but there were none to be found!
Stunning photos.
Thank you!
“By the way the antelope was just running to run, no predators were hot on its heels.” Practice makes perfect!
One correction: The Buffalo is not the Asian Water Buffalo but the much sturdier African variety
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_buffalo
Ha! I knew I would get something wrong. Oh well, I got the Latin binomial correct at least.
😝
The frog is a
painted reed frog.
Thanks, Pamela!
Wonderful stuff! I visited Etosha National Park and the Sossusvlei dunes about ten years ago. These pics bring back lots of wonderful memories…Thanks!
What a great adventure and well captured.
I love how the herd of zebras looks like one massive creature. I’ve heard the stripes are for camouflage in the tall grass, but I wonder if grouping together to look like one huge animal is also legitimate.
That water buffalo looks like one mean brute.
iirc they are one of the top-5 most dangerous African animals.
Is that maybe a Cape Buffalo?
According to some of the “white hunters” of yore, Cape buffalo are the most dangerous African animals. They circle around and track the hunter….
Yes, as p. puk points out, it is the African buffalo, aka Cape buffalo. And they do have a reputation of being extremely dangerous.
Loxod O nta Africana !