This is a slideshow with some of my favorite pictures taken last week at Thanda Safari. My guests and I had many enjoyable game drives with plenty mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, incredible scenery, and beautiful night skies. Have a great week!
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Cheetah are the fastest land mammals with up to 120km/h (75mph).
But they can only run fast for about 30sec. After that they have to rest for quite a while to recover. I have seen them sitting for minutes panting next to their kill before they regained the energy to eat.
The Pronghorn (an antelope like mammal from North America) is one of the fastest land mammal species with a top speed of 90km/h (55mph). But unlike Cheetah they can maintain a high speed of 30mph for over twenty miles. Their closest relatives are Giraffes and Okapi, not antelopes.
Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 640 | 1/500sec | f6.3 | ev+0 | 240mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 45% of original image
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Today was a very exciting day at Thanda Safari. The Lion leadership changed with the arrival of two new dominant males from a game reserve in the Eastern Cape.
I photographed the arrival of these two beautiful and large cats, which replace Thanda’s current dominant Lion. He is moving to a new home in another Big Five Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal.
This change ensures that the Lion genes at Thanda remain strong.
The two four-year-old brothers will stay in a boma (enclosed area) for a while so they can get used to their new surroundings.
Left: Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 640 | 1/2000sec | f6.3 | ev-0.5 | 24mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 90% of original image
Right Top: Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f11/800mm | ISO 3200 | 1/750sec | ev+0 | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 10% of original image
Right Bottom: Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f11/800mm | ISO 2000 | 1/500sec | ev+0 | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 10% of original image
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… are skin-covered bone structures on the heads of Giraffes and male Okapi. They are distinguished from the similar structures of horns and antlers by a permanent covering of skin and fur.
Similar to animals with horns or antlers, male giraffes use their ossicones as weapons during combat, using their heads as clubs.
In early development, they are not bony and are not fused to skull. Ossicones usually fuse to the skull at sexual maturity.
Females and young Giraffes (male and female) have hair on top of their ossicones while adult males are bald.
Technical Data: Canon R6 with RF lens f/11, 800mm | ISO 1600 | 1/500 sec | EV +/-0 | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 45% of original image
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All the common ‘rule books’ for Lions talk about well-formed prides ruled by single males or coalitions of males.
Our Thanda Safari Lions have not read these books. The dominant male roams between multiple prides and often chooses to have quiet time by himself.
And our pride structures are quite loose, especially when various females have litters of cubs of different ages.
Females give birth secluded and then, on many occasions, choose not to join their original pride again but to raise the young ones by themselves.
So keeping track of all groups of Lions is not an easy task, but a very interesting one.
Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 25600 | 1/20sec | f6.3 | ev-3 | 240mm | WB 6500K-edited | AV Mode | Crop to 30% of original image | Note: This picture was taken last night using the light provided by a spotlight from another vehicle. Side-light works very well for night portraits | Limited image quality did to distance and low light
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Normally, Cape buffalo are very calm creatures in their herd structure.
The males occasionally engage in fighting to establish their ranking order, and if any predators are in the vicinity, the herd groups together and chases them away.
However, if a female goes into estrous, all the dominant males (top-ranking) start chasing her around, and the fastest and strongest will mate with her.
On occasion, the males get it wrong and mount one of the younger bulls instead, obviously to no avail!
I took this picture of such an occasion on the Thanda savanna this afternoon.
Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 1000 | 1/2000sec | f6.3 | ev+0 | 240mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 5% of the original image | Please note: The picture quality is marginal due to cropping, but I thought the scene worth showing
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This is a short video slideshow with some of the pictures I took at Thanda and Pakamisa during my first week back in the bush.
Enjoy your weekend!
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Two days ago, I spent the late afternoon at one of my favorite Thanda Safari water holes.
And just as the sun started to set, four giraffes arrived to have an evening drink.
When most mammals want to have a drink, they simply lower their heads to the water. Their necks are long enough and their legs are short enough to make this a very simple process.
Not so for adult giraffes. They either have to spread their front legs extra wide or do a funny half-kneel to reach the water to drink.
So the giraffes either have legs that are too long or necks that are too short!
Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 2000 | 1/2000sec | f6.3 | ev+0 | 220mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 60% of the original image.
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… and few extra pictures from the same ‘photo shoot’:
On my way home last night, I encountered two Lionesses. They were inspecting all the various game on a open savanna with great interest. From their appearance, I could tell that their stomachs were quite empty, so I concluded that they were actually hunting.
From their shaded position upwind, they must have been quite invisible to the Giraffes, Zebras, Wildebeest, Nyalas, and Impalas. On occasion, some of them looked straight towards the two cats but did not see them.
I stayed with them for about ninety minutes until the sun had set.
Unfortunately, their patience was not rewarded that evening. As they approached a Zebra very carefully, a nearby Nyala bull spotted them and gave an alarm call. All the prey animals immediately retreated to a safe distance, and the Lionesses moved on to try somewhere else.
Technical data: Canon R6 with RF lens f4-6.3/24-240mm | ISO 800 | 1/500sec | f6.3 | ev+0 | 240mm | WB 6500K | AV Mode | Crop to 60% of original image
If you want to read more of my stories and see more of my pictures, you should visit my blog at https://sperka.info/blog/
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It is good to be home. Just before sunset last night I took a short drive onto the reserve.
Besides all the general game and many birds I saw some of our Lions snoozing in the middle of a savanna area.
And I took this silhouette shot of a Zebra with my iPhone.
I wish you a good week!
_Technical data: Apple 14 Pro Max | Main Camera 24mm | ISO 64 | 1/19000sec | f1.8 | ev+0 | 48mm_
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