Take a Second Look

Awoken from his midday slumber, this male lion does not look too happy about the disruption of his sleep. Lions sleep up to 20 hours per day.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

Injured by another combatant hippo, this young male is soothing his infection in a pond. Very resilient to infections, hippos heal very quickly in the wild.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

White lions are a genetic rarity endemic to only one region of the world: the Greater Timbavati and the Kruger Park in Africa. With only a few 100s in captivity and 13 white lions in the wild, it is shocking to learn that this special lion species is not protected.

Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve, East London, South Africa

This owl species hunt by day. It feeds on insects, lizards, small birds and snakes.

Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve, East London, South Africa

This pair of wattled cranes really shouldn't be here, but in a strong Al Nino year the weather patterns shift. Nomadic by nature, these cranes move according to flood and drought cycles. They eat tubers, rhizomes, seeds, insects and frogs. The wattled cranes are a threatened species.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

This baby warthog instinctively knows to follow the raised tail of its mom. Because warthogs have short legs and often take cover in tall grass, if alarmed, the adult warthog will raise its tail while fleeing. That way, the baby always knows where mama can be found.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

The impala on the right is the father to the impala on the left. Surprisingly, the daughter has horns. In the world of impalas, only male are supposed to carry horns. As a result of inbreeding (the father mated with the daughter) this curious abnormality of nature has occurred. Shunned by the other males, the horned female impala has taken on a special herding role.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

Equipped with an ATV and a gun, this patrol officer is observing a herd of rhinos from an elevated position. A recent increase in rhino killings have made around-the-clock monitoring necessary.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

As our small plane approaches the dirt landing strip in Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, I spot three giraffes from a few hundred feet above. Observing giraffes in the wild is a magnificent experience. They are mostly found in the dry savanna munching on acacia trees. 

As this group of giraffes moves through the savannah, a male(second from left) is waiting for the female in front of him to urinate into his mouth. Males taste the urine of females to determine their readiness to mate.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

You are looking at US $ 600,000.- worth of rhino horn. For conservationists, it is a race against time, a war against ruthless poaching syndicates and a struggle against corrupt politicians to save the gravely endangered white rhino. It is rhinos like the one in the foreground with unusually long horns that are especially sought after by poachers all over Africa.

...with beautiful yellow eyes!

Two young male plain's zebras fight each other. They are sexually frustrated. Only 1 in 32 zebras is actually able to mate with a female.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

The blue crane is the National Bird of South Africa. It lives in grain fields and open grasslands where it strips seed heads from grasses, eats grass hoppers and catches worms and frogs. The blue crane performs an elaborate courtship dance by running in circles, jumping with wings flapping, calling und tossing grass into the air. It must have worked. This pair has a beautiful little chick to look after.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

These two rhinos have recently witnessed an attack by poachers that killed one and injured another rhino. Since the incident, the rhinos have become aggressive towards humans. One even decided to ram a Landrover.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

Red-billed oxpeckers are welcome companions to short-haired mammals. They remove ticks and flies from the backs, noses and ears of rhinos and other large animals. Most hold still while the oxpeckers are at work, unless they get too rough during the cleaning process.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

Tala Game Reserve, South Africa

This colourful bird hangs out on the lower branches of trees from where it scans the surroundings for large insects. The roller gets his name for his aerial rolling, which is part of his courtship and territorial display.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

With a swamp right next to a human settlement, fences are necessary to keep elephants away from the laundry in the back yard.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Mombasa, Kenya

A common hippo barely acknowledges my presence. Hippos spend a lot of time in marches and swamps. Their skin is very sensitive - it loses water rapidly and must be protected from the sun. A fully grown male hippo can weigh as much as 5 big horses.

A male savanna baboon wins a staring match with my camera in the open spaces of the Amboseli Game Reserve in Kenya.

Tala Game Reserve, Durban, South Africa

Kit (second from right) discusses the lack of rhino sightings in the Selous Game Reserve with the pilot of our small plane. The vast park has few dirt landing strips to bring tourists, but no airport facilities. It takes 45 minutes to fly from Dar Es Salaam on the Tanzanian coast to the game reserve.

Walking dangerously close behind a chameleon, this ant would be well advised to turn around. But it may not have enough time. Chameleons catch prey with their tongue in 0.07 seconds. On average, it's tongue is 1 to 1.5 times the length of the chameleon's body. About 50% of the world's chameleons live in Madagascar. I photographed this one in the Lokobe Nature Reserve on Nosy Be Island in Madagascar. 

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

A marabou stork and a lappet-faced vulture watch and wait as a baboon devours a young impala. This stork is particularly ugly with oozing white legs and a naked red head with black mottling. It has a wing span of up to 3 m (10 ft) and dominates vultures at carcasses. 

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

A savanna baboon has killed and is devouring a young impala gazelle. Waiting their turn (not in the picture) are 5 vultures and one stork.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

Four juvenile white-backed vultures wait until a nearby baboon finishes his meal.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

Rain doesn't seem to phase this African buffalo.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

Walking through one of the last remaining endemic forests in Madagascar can be very interesting. The Madagascar Boa loves to curl up in trees and hang from branches. You can also trip over them as they slither across the leafy forest floor. Watching your every step and taking care what trees you touch is a good life insurance policy. Leaving the narrow foot path is d e f i n i t e l y not a good idea.

Lemurs can only be found in Madagascar and black lemurs only in the very north-western corner of the island. This male black lemur was checking me out from high in the tree. Seeing one of those precious animals in Madagascar's endemic forest was a real treat. Endangered by habitat destruction, I wonder how many of this species are still alive in the wild.

Did you know a giraffe's tongue is purple? This giraffe munches on thorny bushes in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.

A herd of plains zebras moves slowly across the savannah in the Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

A black-winged stilt wades through marshy waters in search for food.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

Despite their relatively tall size, wildebeest can easily fall prey to lions and other carnivores. As protection, they graze among zebras, taking advantage of the zebras' heightened alertness to danger. They also pay attention to the warning signals given by baboons.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

An elephant family with one juvenile and one baby.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

When you are at the top of the food chain, you can afford to sleep with your eyes closed.

This male lion is napping under an acacia tree during the hottest part of the day

Selous Game Park, Tanzania

A female lion and her three juvenile cubs.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

Three great white pelicans land among a herd of buffalo in Ambolesi Game Reserve, Kenya. Pelicans fish in groups with their bills open under water. They nest on the ground in vast colonies of up to 30,000 pairs.

The gray crowned crane lives mostly in grasslands, flooded plains, marshes and grain fields feeding on insects and grass seeds.  The crane's courtship dance involves bowing, jumping and tossing objects into the air while calling and circling. This is one of Africa's most spectacular birds.

Amboseli Game Reserve, Kenya

Covered in scares from battles with rivals and prey, this male lion shows that it's not all roses when you are at the top.

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania

With their backs facing the wind and rain, these Thompson gazelles and a wildebeest wait for weather conditions to improve. We shouldn’t have been surprised about the rain. November is the beginning of the rainy season in the Amboseli Game Reserve near Mombasa, Kenya.