We are in dire need of wildlife photos, so if you have some good ones, please send them in.
Today we have the sixth and last installment of Ephraim Heller’s photos from his recent trip to Namibia. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
This is the last installment in my series on a May-June 2026 visit to Namibia. Today’s photos were taken inland, at the Ongava/Etosha region (where I photographed rhinos for last week’s installment) and at Nkasa Rupara National Park in the Caprivi Strip.
Most of the animals in this post are well known to readers, but the history of the Caprivi Strip is worth a digression on 19th century colonial competition in Africa. Here is a map (courtesy of WorldAtlas) of present-day Namibia. The Caprivi Strip is the odd extension in the northeast corner of the country that juts out to contact Angola, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is 30 km wide and 450 km long:
Germany had established the colony of German South West Africa (modern Namibia) in 1884. Germany also had the colony of German East Africa (Tanganyika, the mainland portion of modern-day Tanzania). German Chancellor Leo von Caprivi wanted to establish a trade corridor between the two German colonies on the west and east coasts of Africa, but there was one problem: the British held colonies in between. He came up with the idea that if he could extend German South West Africa’s eastern border to the Zambezi River, there would be a navigable waterway linking the two German colonies.
This ambition led to negotiations with Britain and to the signing of the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty in 1890. Britain transferred the Caprivi strip and ceded the North Sea island of Heligoland to Germany. In return, Germany recognized British authority over the Zanzibar islands (now also part of Tanzania) off of Tanganyika.
All of Chancellor Caprivi’s scheming came to naught, however, because the Germans were not aware of a small obstacle to navigation in the Zambezi River known today as Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world (photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons):
The cunning British, on the other hand, were well aware of the existence of Victoria Falls (David Livingstone having named them in 1855). Perfidious Albion, indeed. As usual during the Scramble for Africa, the indigenous people were not a consideration in this deal.
Now, on to the animals. I’ll skip descriptions as most species will be familiar to readers:
Wahlberg’s striped skink (Trachylepis wahlbergii) peeking out of the skull of an African buffalo (Syncerus caffer):
Lion (Panthera leo) at sunset:
Black-backed jackals (Lupulella mesomelas) playing at dawn:
Angolan giraffe (Giraffa giraffa angolensis) coming to drink at the Linyanti River:
Shikra (Tachyspiza badia):
Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus):
Rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis):
More from the sunset photo series. A Burchell’s zebra (Equus quagga burchellii):
Red Lechwe (Kobus leche):
Vultures (species unknown):
Great pics, thank you for sharing. I love how the monitor lizard is looking at you. Thanks also for the history re the Caprivi Strip, I’d wondered how that strange bit of boundary setting came to be. I’m kind of surprised that none of the surrounding countries have tried to reverse that particular land grab, given how awkward it it.
S(n)ide remark: But Germany still has Heligoland,
“a land where there are no bankers, no lawyers, and no crime; where all gratuities are strictly forbidden, the landladies are all honest and the boatmen take no tips”
Another terrific set! Thank you for sharing these.