We have some photographs out of Africa today, all taken by reader Richard Bond. Lots of felids, too! His report:
I am somewhat intimidated by the outstanding quality of many of your wildlife photo contributions, but there have been no big wild cats for a while, so these might interest you. They were taken in one afternoon and early evening in the Masai Mara.
First, though, on our way there we flew over the southern end of Lake Magadi, the southernmost alkaline lake of the Kenyan Rift Valley. We were about 3000 metres above the lake, which is about two kilometres wide at this point. The surface of large parts of the lake is formed by precipitated sodium sesquicarbonate, within which the “wildlife” comprises vast numbers of several species of archaea. Some of these cause the pink colour. The sectors of clear water are centred on two of the hot springs that feed the lake along its margins.
In the first photo of the lions, the markings on the back of their ears show that the cubs on the right do not belong to the lioness on the left. The next photo shows the same markings on their actual mother. Apparently these markings are very variable between families and are inherited, so that they are useful to people studying lions.
Photos 5 & 6 were taken as the sun was setting. The excellent camouflage that this light provides makes it a little difficult to see that the lioness with her legs in the air is suckling three very small cubs.
The two cheetah cubs (probably male and female from their relative sizes) have been left while their mother goes hunting. They are lightly screened by knee-high grass and continually looking around as a precaution against lions, which would regard cheetah cubs as tasty snackettes.
My distant shot of the leopard is barely worth submitting. Unfortunately I entrusted the zoomed-in followup to an insistent and excited 11-year specimen of Homo sapiens, but did not realise until I saw it on a big screen that it was slightly blurred.
Can you spot the leopard? No, because it’s already spotted! (I’ll be here all week, folks. . .)
Given your interest a few years ago in flying in the copilot’s seat of a light aircraft, I have included a photo of the aforementioned H. sapiens specimen as he helped to take us back to the coast.
Nice! Masai Mara is amazing.
Where did you stay while there?
We stayed at the Mara Simba Lodge, on the bank of the Talek river, which forms part of the north-east border of the reserve.
Thank you!
Kenya has had some unrest in recent years. Did you have any issues?
Thanks,
I last visited Kenya three years ago, and my last day there was actually national election day. There were long, patient and good-humoured queues of people waiting to vote, with no signs of trouble. Turnout was 89%; Kenya might well be the most democratically advanced country in Africa. When I asked my driver who he wanted to become president, he said that he didn’t care, as long as the policies of the previous eight years were continued.
I saw no other signs of security problems, except for very occasional patrols of police armed with automatic weapons. Of course, there were the usual local areas where it was inadvisable to go, so you avoid those.
I was planning to be back there about now, but I was put off by the current el nino. When I was there during the 1998 el nino, the dry season was wet and cool, and it seems similar this time, albeit closer to normal temperatures. I plan to go back next year.
Thank you very much for the details. That’s about what I figured. News here says unrest, riots, etc., while the people there just get on with life like normal.
I have been to Kenya before; we plan to go to Zambia for the next Africa trip. I want to see Victoria Falls; and it’s said to be great for wildlife viewing too.
Excellent photos! I would love a trip like that. If I understand correctly, much of that pink mass in the aerial photo is really water, clouded and textured by teaming archaea?
It sounds like (Wiki) that the salt does the patterning and the microbes the coloring.
Great pics, Richard, especially of the lake! Your 11-yr-old must have been thrilled!! My West-Africa-dwelling parents took me there in my early 20s and the experience was unforgettable.
Yes, he was thrilled; that is why he made a bit of a mess of the close-up of the leopard:)
Waking up to African felids is always a delight. Thanks for the submission.
Definitely an entry for the Bucket List! Thanks Richard. 🙂
My wife an I flew a Cessna 172 across South Africa from Johannesburg to the Indian Ocean. What a thrill! The land and coast is beautiful from the air and on the ground. I’d love to visit more of Africa – Kenya perhaps.
Very cool pics, Richard, and thanks for the story about the lake!
I like your distant leopard shot a lot, as it shows how well camouflaged it can be, even when it’s in plain sight!
You have a good point: there is a bit of a story behind that photo. We had actually driven past the leopard without our guide spotting it: a most unusual event, as they are extraordinarily good. Then one of our group looked back and saw what he thought was the silhouette of a pair of ears. We drove back and saw the leopard.
As to the photo itself, I took an immediate shot, in case the leopard quickly vanished, which meant that the camera was in in its default setup after switch-on, at 50 mm focal length (35 mm camera equivalent). I then zoomed in, but entrusted the shot to my son. These days I would take more shots, but this was a my first trip with a digital camera; it had limited memory and battery life, and I was inexperienced in adapting from film camera habits.
In retrospect, I liked the effect of a long shot (to show the background) followed by a close-up, and I have often deliberately adopted this procedure in subsequent visits to wildlife reserves.
Gotta love those digicams!
These are wonderful, Richard! Clicking twice and then zooming in shows them at their best detail. Thanks.
Lovely pictures. It’s nice to see the wild kitties being, well, kitties.