Another one of these diaries meant to provide a brief respite from.. well you know. These photos were taken in the Okavango and Linyanti regions of northwest Botswana.
Savuti Sunset
African Wild Dog Lycaon pictus
The scientific name means painted wolf. These animals have a very strong social instinct and there is currently something rather extraordinary going on near one of the camps in Botswana. I heard this story when I was at a different camp on this past trip. The is a lone female wild dog that has adopted some jackals as a surrogate family. The adult jackals accepted her after she began regurgitating food for their puppies. The complete story is HERE.
African Wild Dog
As I have said before these are some of the most endangerd predators in Africa along with the cheetah. There are probably less than 5,000 left in the wild and their numbers are likely decreasing.
Young Male Lion Panthera leo
This young male was on patrol on his own. Male lions leave, or are expelled from, their family pride when they reach maturity. Females stay with their mothers and aunts. Male lions on their own obviously can hunt and they also scavange other predators kills. This fellow became very interested in watching a vulture fly over, he followed it with his eyes very intently to see if it was going to land nearby.
Young Male Lion
This one and his brother were still with their mother although they had already outgrown her.
Hippo
A factoid from wikipedia:
Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, their closest living relatives are cetaceans (whales, porpoises, etc.) from which they diverged about 55 million years ago.[3] The common ancestor of whales and hippos split from other even-toed ungulates around 60 million years ago.[4] The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus Kenyapotamus in Africa, date to around 16 million years ago.
Hippo Hippopotamus amphibius
To mark territory hippos defecate while twirling their tail to propel their waste over the widest area possible. Sorry, just reporting here.
Female Leopard Panthera pardus
The smallest of the four big cats in the genus Panthera (tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard) they are still incredibly powerful, able to haul prey high into trees to escape lions and hyenas.
Female Leopard
African Elephant Loxodonta africana
Elephants eat all sorts of vegetation, including bark and branches, thorns and all. They must have incredibly tough mouths. Our guide said he was saw a small group of elephants push over and consume an entire palm tree in about an hour. The whole thing was completely gone, trunk to leaves.
Old One Tusk
Sibling Cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus
These young cheetahs recently left the protection of their mother. One is male and the other female so they will not stay together for very long. Male siblings sometimes for coalitions that stay together for the entire lives but females are always solitary and opposite sex siblings wont' stay together.
Cheetahs are highly specialized for speed with incredibly flexible spines and non-retractable claws. They can reach speeds up to 70 mph.
Of the big African predators they have the toughest time holding onto their kills. They are not big enough to protect their food from lions, hyenas, leopards or probably even a pack of wild dogs.
Monitor Lizard
Not the greatest photo but it just isn't every day you see a 3 1/2 foot long lizard.
Coucal
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BONUS STUFF
This is off-topic but I was playing around with some processing software on a photo I shot at Waimea Bay last winter:
Waimea
This was taken yesterday afternoon with a Panasonic GH1 micro 4/3rds format camera:
Downtown Honolulu