lion – Page 26 – Christian Sperka Photography

2015-11-03

New York Times

One of my images was published in the New York Times on 27 October 🙂

PANTHERA – Post on 27 October 2015

‘Pick up your copy of The New York Times today and flip to page A11 to read about a study co-authored by Panthera and published yesterday that unveils new findings on declining lion populations in key regions of Africa.

You can also catch up on the NYTimes article online @ http://nyti.ms/1POYIU4 and read Panthera President Dr. Luke Hunter’s explanation on the far-reaching impact of the catastrophic loss of Africa’s lions: “You start pulling at the threads of these big complicated ecosystems, and they start unraveling.”

Learn what Panthera is doing across Africa to protect one of our planet’s most celebrated species @ http://bit.ly/1N37dZM.

Special thanks to Christian Sperka Photography and Nick Garbutt Wildlife Photography for the generous use of their lion photos in this feature!’

2015-10-25

Organization! (2)

I am working on organizing all the Wildlife images, which I took between 2001 and 2010. This is a major undertaking which will take me many month.

But one of the rewards of this -sometime tedious – work is that I find some good images I have never published before. Here is one of them. Three hunting Lionesses.

Sorry to say, but there will be no further wildlife posts for the next two weeks. I will be back on Thanda on 8 November.

2015-09-04

Mating Eyes

When Lions mate they are actually busy for multiple days with a copulation every twenty to thirty minutes. In the breaks the male and the female keep eyes each other.

I love these two images which I took during such an intermission. An alert gentlemen and a lady giving him a stern look!

2015-08-25

What is he looking at?

Have a guess what Thanda’s dominant male is looking at in this picture!

2015-08-202015-08-24

Thanda Cats

Watching Africa’s iconic large cats – Lion, Leopard and Cheetah – is always a special treat on any safari. But these three sighting were even more exciting than usual. First we saw Thanda’s dominant male Lion mating with the oldest female of the Mduna pride. Then we observed a young Cheetah female doing what Cheetahs ‘never do’, climbing up a tree trunk. And last but not least we sat with a relaxed and very beautiful male Leopard for quite a while, in broad day light!

A pleasure for the Thanda guests and great picture opportunities for all Wildlife photographers among them!

2015-07-24

BLOODLIONS

PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE THIS MESSAGE if you agree that CANNED LION HUNTS and BREEDING OF LIONS IN CAPTIVITY in South Africa should be STOPPED! #bloodlions

Yesterday evening I watched an excellent documentary – titled BLOODLIONS – on this subject at the 36th Durban film festival.

Pippa Hankinson, the film’s producer, recently stayed at Thanda and we had a talk on the subject. After that talk I decided to go and watch the film.

I think that regardless of what one thinks of the moral and animal-rights issues it is in the best interest of South Africa as a country to stop these hunts and the breeding in captivity as soon as possible. And if other countries (99% of the hunters are foreigners) join Australia in banning the import of Lion parts then they will help tremendously in this cause.

Tourism is one of the most important parts of the South African economy and its reputation must not be damaged by just a few thousand ‘canned’ Lion hunters being allowed to get their trophy! Currently thousands of Lions are bred and raised just to supply these hunts and the Lion bone trade business.

For more information on the subject go to http://www.bloodlions.org/

2015-05-032015-05-02

A bit mad!

What does a wildlife photographer – who lives on a big five game reserve – do on his day off work? He goes to another game reserve to spend a day taking more wildlife pictures 🙂 – sounds a bit mad, but I enjoyed myself!

This “Lion-Rhino-Car” encounter is just a teaser for the images to come from my recent off-day at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park!

This picture shows a White Rhino bull walking calmly by a young male Lion. This youngster was part of a large pride of Lions devouring a Buffalo bull, which they had killed in the morning hours next to this road, only 20 meters (50 feet) to the right in thick bush. I drove up to this scene just moments after I entered the park. And a few more minutes after I took this picture cars started piling up at this sighting which made it impossible to take any more good images. I moved on and left the madness behind me.

2015-05-02

That’s it! – Fourteen for the Villa! (14)

I have selected fourteen images which are now hanging in two of the suites at Thanda’s Villa iZulu. These are some of my favorite images and I have prepared them in sepia to match the existing old-fashioned frames. This is the last of these images. I have also included a gallery with all fourteen pictures below. Enjoy them!

Number fourteen – The End :-): Thanda’s Dominant Male Lion

PS: If you stay at Thanda’s Villa iZulu in the suites number 2 or 3 you can view them in the original print.

2015-04-252015-04-27

Fourteen for the Villa! (2)

I have selected fourteen images to be hung in two of the suites at Thanda’s Villa iZulu. These are some of my favorite images and I have prepared them in sepia to match the existing old-fashioned frames. I would like to share these images with you – one per day for the next two weeks.

Here is number two: A sleepy Lion cub!

PS: If you stay at Thanda’s Villa iZulu in the suites number 2 or 3 you can view them in the original print.

2015-04-09

Reflection

An interesting Lion sighting! Thanda’s North Pride having a late evening drink at a small waterhole, only illuminated by the spotlight reflection.