01 Sunday Jan 2017
The sun rises over the Serengeti Plains, Tanzania, August 2014
‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.’
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist. This quote is taken from her seminal work Silent Spring, 1962.
13 Wednesday Jul 2016
I used the word anonymous in my title because I’m not entirely sure what all of these animals are. And I use the word ‘antelopes’ in the broadest possible sense, as my photos may well include creatures that are not strictly speaking members of the antelope family. The trouble is that when you go on safari in a country like Tanzania, it’s far too easy to be overwhelmed by and enraptured with the less common, more sensational animals (the lions and leopards and cheetahs), so the ‘antelopes’, though no less interesting in themselves, tend to get ignored just a little.
Having said that I did have to sort through more than a hundred ‘antelope’ photos when choosing which to include in this post. And, because I knew I would forget them, I did ask our guides the names of what we were seeing and made a list – I’m just not sure now which is which on that list. So, these photos may or may not include: impala, topi, Thomson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, dik-dik, waterbuck, bushbuck, Cape eland, and Coke’s hartebeest.
20 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted in animals, nature, nature photography
‘A sense of humor is good for you. Have you ever heard of a laughing hyena with heart burn?’ ~ Bob Hope
‘HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its habit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But the medical student does that.’ ~ Ambrose Bierce
‘There’s always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.’ ~ D. H. Lawrence
‘Do let’s pretend that I’m a hungry hyena, and you’re a bone!’ ~ Lewis Carroll
‘We slander the hyena; man is the fiercest and cruellest animal.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau
06 Wednesday Apr 2016
Posted in animals, nature, nature photography
On safari in the Serengeti even the places where we stopped for lunch had amazing wildlife, some of them lazing around in the sun as if just waiting for the animal paparazzi to show up. These critters are Rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis), also known as Cape hyraxes and rock badgers. Incredibly, though they look a bit like huge hamsters, their closest living relatives – cousins many times removed – are elephants and sea cows. Just like their cousins, they have prominent (though obviously much smaller) tusk-like upper incisors, and the males’ testes are permanently enclosed inside their abdomens.
Their bodies do not regulate heat very efficiently so, though they look rather fat and lazy, they are more active in the early morning and in the evening but need simply to bask during the hottest hours of the day. Hyraxes live in large social groups, using sentries to warn of danger when foraging for their favourite food plants, and communicating through a series of at least 21 different vocalisations which can, apparently, inform other hyraxes of their age, size, body weight, social status and hormonal condition. They can be found in most of the sub-Saharan countries in Africa, and are just plain cute!
30 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in animals, nature, nature photography
Tags
king of the jungle, lion, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Serengeti Plains, Tanzania
Did you know …
The ‘king of the jungle’ is just an expression as lions actually live in grasslands and plains.
The roar of a lion can be heard up to 8kms (5 miles) away.
A lion can run at 50 mph but only for short distances and can leap as far as 36 feet.
When it walks, a lion’s heels don’t touch the ground.
Lions are the only big cats to live in family groups, known as prides.
The reason lions spend up to 20 hours a day resting and sleeping is because their bodies have very few sweat glands so it is easier for them to be active in the cool of the night.
Lions’ eyes are six times more sensitive to light than human eyes, which means they have excellent night vision.
The darker the mane, the older the lion, and lionesses seem to prefer males with darker manes.
My photographs of lions were taken on the Serengeti Plains and in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania in 2014, at the end of a week-long trip with The Giving Lens, an organisation that combines photography workshops with mentoring, media and financial support for local NGOs.
19 Saturday Mar 2016
Posted in animals, nature, nature photography
Today, at varying times around the globe, we celebrate Earth Hour, a movement in which 7000 cities and towns around the world unite in turning off their power, as a way of showing their support for environmental issues, as a way of uniting in their desire to protect planet earth.
In honour of this special day I thought I would share one of the most special times I have experienced on this amazing planet we call home. If we don’t unite to protect our earth, sights like this will disappear forever. It is a simple act – a cat climbs a tree – but this is not just any cat, this is a pregnant female leopard, climbing the tree where she has previously stashed a kill, in the Serengeti, in Tanzania.
I hope we can all work together to protect our planet so that everyone has the opportunity to see this. I hope one day you get to see this. I hope one day your grandchildren get to see this.
16 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in animals, nature, nature photography
Though I had seen giraffes in zoos, it was a totally different experience to see wild creatures like these in their natural environment, on the Serengeti Plains, in Tanzania, in 2014. In a zoo, you are safe: the animal is confined and, if not tame, at least partially used to human interaction. In the Serengeti, though I never felt unsafe, I was very much aware that I was out of place, an intruder in a savage world, where death and violence are commonplace.
I felt this most when we were watching these three young male giraffes. Initially, they looked like they were just hanging out like good buddies but, as we watched, they started necking. This is a common, often violent ritual to establish dominance in the herd or to impress a female. They swing their necks and try to hit each other with those hard bumps (ossicles) on the tops of their heads. And it must hurt – those whacks and thumps sounded brutal and can apparently be heard up to a kilometre away. These three didn’t injure each other but older males have been known to knock each other unconscious with the power of their blows. It was certainly sobering to watch.
earthstar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.