Skip to content →

Tag: Etosha

Quirky moments (#16 in series: big numbers/small numbers)

Published September 2, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#16 in series: big numbers/small numbers)

 

This post’s featured image was taken beside a waterhole in Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.

Visible are two members of one species, and more than hundred of another.

A mature African elephant is currently “our” planet’s most massive terrestrial animal.

Imagine this:

On one side of a colossal pair of scales you place one of the pictured elephants.

In order to balance those scales you would then need at least forty thousand of the pictured birds…and if a substantial flock of red queleas was present, forty thousand would not be an unusually high number!

read moreQuirky moments (#16 in series: big numbers/small numbers)
Comments closed

Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

Published August 31, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

 

If you are a Pelican Yoga regular, you have already seen Barbara Cartland’s and Barbie’s avian avatars. (in #10 of the “quirky moments” series)

This post’s “punkish” cub is a member of Africa’s most oft-misrepresented mammal species.

His kind are very much smarter and much more “social” than most humans realise.

Contrary to common human belief, spotted hyenas are primarily predators rather than scavengers.

Lions are much more likely to “steal” from hyenas than vice versa, and spotted hyenas are much the more efficient hunters.

Over the last several thousand years hyenas have had rotten “press”, but they are not rotters.

Nonetheless, the young hero of this post’s appearance and demeanour were decidedly “Rottenesque”.

read moreQuirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)
Comments closed

Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

Published August 6, 2023 by Pelidoug

Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

 

 

This post documents the last of our four close encounters with leopards in Namibia during November 2022.

The featured image shows “our hero”,  not long after we had noticed him.

He was to our right; his quarry (a springbok) was where all the visible grazing mammals were at that time – to our left, on the other side of the relevant road.

read moreLeopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)
Comments closed

African leopard, Indian leopard (teaser)

Published August 4, 2023 by Pelidoug

African leopard, Indian leopard (teaser)

 

Pictured above is a leopard, stalking.

He had targeted a springbok, on the morning of 07 November 2022 in Etosha National Park, northern Namibia.

Almost exactly four months later, in very different habitat we enjoyed our first Indian sighting of a leopard.

The next two Pelican Yoga posts will feature each encounter, separately.

read moreAfrican leopard, Indian leopard (teaser)
One Comment

“From behind” (#9 in single-image series: relaxed giraffes)

Published May 30, 2023 by Pelidoug

“From behind” (#9 in single-image series: relaxed giraffes)

 

For a giraffe, drinking is as necessary as it is for any other mammal.

The very act of positioning oneself to make drinking physically possible is, however, an enormously more delicate, demanding task for a giraffe than for other mammals.

Giraffes’ approach to a waterhole is always slow, tentative, hesitant…and in a group.

Anxiety and hyper vigilance are especially evident at the crucial moment when a giraffe has to decide that it is now “safe” – or not – to get into drinking position.

read more“From behind” (#9 in single-image series: relaxed giraffes)
Comments closed

“From behind” (#1 in single-image series)

Published May 22, 2023 by Pelidoug

“From behind” (#1 in single-image series)

 

General rule, when photographing animals, humans included:

ensure that their eyes are fully visible, in sharp focus, and looking at “you”, the viewer.

As is true of so many “rules”, this one is worth knowing.

Generally, it is a good idea to abide by it…but sometimes, the better idea is to break it…

read more“From behind” (#1 in single-image series)
Comments closed

Three of the same (#7 in series: plains zebra)

Published April 29, 2023 by Pelidoug

Three of the same (#7 in series: plains zebra)

 

For #6 in this series, the number of stripes on the bodies of the featured threesome was self-evident: 3 X 5 = 15.

The number of stripes on today’s heroes is an enormously higher number, not self-evident: 3 X ? = ?…my head hurts…

All members of Equus quagga have many stripes.

Each has his/her own unique pattern.

read moreThree of the same (#7 in series: plains zebra)
Comments closed