Over 1,000 additional antelopes and zebra arrived over the last few month at Thanda Private Game Reserve. These Impala, Wildebeest, Nyala, Zebra and Kudu will enhance the excellent Thanda Game Drive Experience even further. Besides seeing the Big Five on daily drives it is very exciting to see large groups of these herbivores roaming on the reserve.
The images show the release of a young Nyala bull and a group of Zebra.
I have added 169 new images to my “New Wildlife Images” Gallery. (The new images are at the beginning of the gallery),
Here is the link: http://www.sperka.biz/new
Have a good week!
PS: The picture above is a b&w art image of a Zebra with the sun lighting it from behind.
This was the first time that I saw our two male Cheetahs on a kill. They often hunt in very thick areas and only appear once they are well fed, far away from the actual kill. On this occasion they brought down a baby Zebra on the savanna. In this picture one of the brothers is keeping watch while the other one still feeds on the carcass.
Cheetahs eat incredibly fast because they often loose their kill to larger predators.
They can “stuff” themselves to the point they have difficulties moving – except when motivated by an approaching Lion :-).
The Zebra’s mother was still looking and calling for her calf when we arrived at the scene. A wound on her back showed that she had recently survived a Lion attack. And now she lost her new-born calf to the Cheetah. Let’s hope she survives her injury and that she will be able to have another calf.
Today’s images are a bit more “artsy” than my usual wildlife images.
The first is of an Golden Orb Spider on a branch.
The second is of an Golden Orb Spider at sunrise.
The third is of an Zebra’s eye just before sunset. (This image is part of my EYES series)
Enjoy the images!
All three images are part of my “Without the Five” series (images 12-14).
When it has rained as much as it did the last few days we cannot drive off-road for quite a while. So game viewing becomes rather more difficult, especially when looking for carnivores.
This mornings game drive was therefore a great surprise. We left the Lodge looking for Lions. About half an hour into the drive we came across a male Leopard walking down the road towards us. Luckily he took his time moving off the road.
He was followed a few minutes later by a Spotted Hyena, which did not run immediately as usual, but stayed for a “photo shoot”.
And when we stopped for our morning coffee break a dazzle of Zebra nearby did not run away as usual, but approached us quite close. Two of the males in the group started fighting which resulted in an interesting series of pictures.
What a morning 🙂 Have a good week!
White stripes on black background or black stripes on white background?
It was previously believed that Zebras were white animals with black stripes, since some Zebras have white underbellies. Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal’s background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions.
The pattern on every Zebra is unique, very much like fingerprints. And sometimes the white stripes are wider or narrower. The faint stripe in between the black and white is called a “shadow stripe” and is typical for the Burchell’s Zebra (a sub-species of the Plains Zebra).
These images are part of my “Without the Five” series:
Each image features a species, which is usually not in the safari limelight. So they will be no images of Lions, Leopard, Elephants, Rhinos, Buffalo, Cheetahs …
Enjoy the “without the Five” series
My next guests are arriving tomorrow afternoon, so I had a day to do some photography work by myself. Just me, my cameras and my Land Rover.
My goal for the day was to take pictures of youngsters. I was lucky to get pictures of Lion cubs and Zebra fowls.
Here are two of my favorite images of the day.
A lot of animals have their babies arrive early in the rainy season (summer). This picture is of a small Zebra foal that was born in the last few days.
We also have many small Impalas. All of them were born in the last few days.
Enjoy your week!
Today I put together my Thanda sighting report. I had a total of 183 major/special game sightings since I arrived at Thanda in June.
Here are the detailed numbers 🙂
42 x Lions / 40 x Elephants / 34 x Cheetah / 32 x Buffalo / 23 x White Rhino / 3 x Spotted Hyena / 2 x Leopard / 1 x Black Rhino / 1 x African Wild Dog /5 x Others (Jackal, Python, Puff Adder, Vultures)
And here are three of my favorite pictures from this week …
… our Elephant herd moving away from me. Please note the little one (2 weeks old) in between!
… two Zebras biting one another “lovingly”
… one of the Cheetah brothers walking close to my camera (on the savanna)
On today’s game drive we had an encounter with the massive bulk of seven White Rhinos …
… and some Zebras took flight when we approached a waterhole.
At the end of the day two male Cheetah almost caught an Impala.
We also saw an Elephant bull and a group of Wildebeest at the waterhole.
Not a bad Monday.
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 