Grey heron piggybacking on a hippo.
July 30, 2008
Grey herons often make use of hippos’ backs as places to rest and fish from. I see this one fairly often at a lagoon near here and it seems to spend a lot of its time on the hippo. The hippo doesn’t seem to mind at all..
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Hippos from 4000 ft
July 17, 2008
I returned yesterday from a photography assignment in the North Luangwa National Park. It is several years since I was last there but nothing much has changed. Although there is less wildlife, it is wilder than the South Luangwa and has a magical, timeless feeling. I loved it.
This is a photo of the rapidly shrinking Luangwa river that I took on the plane ride home. The cluster of dots in the bottom left corner is a pod of roughly 30 hippos. You can also make out their tracks in the sand which they follow every evening out into the bush to feed. Unfortunately converting the photo to srgb for the web has turned it a strange pink colour – oh well…
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Elephant chases Leopard
July 10, 2008
Despite all the Lion activity in the area we are still seeing leopards fairly often. I came across this interesting encounter as I was following a lovely female walking slowly around her territory. She approached this elephant very confidently but the elephant obviously didn’t like her nearby and gave a loud trumpet and then a mock charge. The Leopard seemed to be taken completely by surprise and streaked off into the bushes!
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Lioness at dawn
July 9, 2008
The Hollywoods have been away for a while but are back again and seem to be sticking around. They killed a buffalo near here yesterday and by this morning it was all gone. They were lying in a shallow ravine quietly digesting it when I came across them at dawn today. As I sat watching them some Impala wandered nearby and this one female was the only one bothered to stand up and take a look. The rest of them didn’t even lift their heads they were so bloated with buffalo meat..
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Crocodile eye
July 8, 2008
This crocodile was lying in the open near a road at least 500 metres from the nearest water. I thought maybe he had smelt a meal (perhaps a Leopard or Lion kill) and had come out to investigate although I couldn’t see anything in the area. As I drove up to him he started to move off and then froze completely. I slowly got closer and closer and he never moved. Eventually I was within a couple of metres of him and he just lay there. I took a few close up shots and then left him to it.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Leopards and more leopards
July 3, 2008
We have been having incredible leopard sightings this last month. I have seen more in June this year than the whole of last season which is amazing.
This first shot is of a huge male that I came across yesterday morning. He was pretty shy though and quickly disappeared into the thickets.
This shot is from a few days ago of a female descending from a sausage tree with her kill – a young puku antelope. There was actually three different leopards on this kill at different times throughout the morning. One of them was an ancient and very ugly female with only one eye! Unfortunately she stayed well hidden and I didn’t get any shots of her.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
