Close-ups in Kruger

I've recently returned from a fairly extended trip to two of Southern Africa's iconic destinations where we did some awesome camera-trapping. I recorded over 50 000 images and, as you can imagine, its taken me a while to work through them all and find those that are worth sharing.

The first part of the trip was in South Africa's largest reserve, the Kruger Park . At almost 2 million hectares in size this is not a reserve that one can easily cover with camera-traps. So we just picked a few good water-holes for the project. I was privileged to spend the time with staff of the Organisation for Tropical Studies (OTS) and their students - mostly from the U.S.

As always at small man-made water holes camera-traps can record some amazing images. Here are just a few of the close-ups that I enjoyed:

This young elephant had obviously just enjoyed a mud bath in the vicinity.

A young baboon who was curious about the new structure at his regular drinking spot.

A very sick looking old lion. Sadly he is no longer the the King of the Jungle.

An Impala ewe.What was interesting about this series of photos was the Fish Eagle in the background. It spent long periods just sitting in the water. While the impala didn't need worry about it I'd have thought the young baboon in the distance should have.

A White Rhino. They're not known for their good eyesight and when you look at the size of their eyes you get to understand why that is.

More to follow.....