Tag: Gamewatchers Safaris

elephant

Elephant, Amboseli National Park

Photo of an elephant facing the camera in Amboseli National Park.

I was in Kenya recently.  This photo is from Amboseli National Park which is known for its elephants.

I injured my right elbow before I left for Kenya and ordered a Gimpro Gear Safari Clamp which took all the weight off my right elbow.  An RRS fluid gimbal is mounted to it and I used a Canon R5 and Canon RF100-500mm lens the whole trip.  The clamp worked great mounted on a Gamewatchers Safaris truck.  It’s like having a tripod without having to deal with the legs in the vehicle.  They are very popular in South Africa.

Photo of Gimpro Gear Safari Clamp with RRS fluid gimbal mounted to it with Canon R5 and Canon RF100-500mm lens.

Cheetah

Cheetah Cub, Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya

This is a portrait photo of a cheetah cub.

I love observing and photographing cheetah cubs at play.  This cub was very entertaining.

One of the interesting things about all cheetahs is the tear tracks.  I checked to see if there was anything written about why those tear tracks evolved and found that of all the big cats their hunting is almost always limited to daylight hours and the tear tracks help their eyes cope with the glare of the sun.  Their tear tracks act like the black grease and tape used  by some athletes when they play day games.  Evolution is an interesting subject.

 

Cheetah

Cheetah Cub, Kenya

This is a photo of a cheetah cub standing on a tree's limbs.

I photographed this cheetah cub in Kenya’s Olare Motorogi Conservancy just north of the Maasai Mara Reserve.

I’ve become a big fan of these Kenyan conservancies which I knew nothing about until last spring.  The conservancies are lands owned by Masai, which were used exclusively for ranching/farming and are now being allowed to revert back to natural conditions.  Safari companies lease these lands from the Masai people at rents equal to or more than what the Masai would make ranching and farming them.  Plus, the Masai people are hired to staff virtually 100% of the safari camps and the safari companies provide other benefits, such as assistance in education and health care.  The whole objective is to slow the increasing conversion of Africa’s wild lands to agriculture due to expanding populations.

To a wildlife photographer like me, the conservancies offer some important advantages compared to places like the Maasai Mara Reserve and Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania.  First, there are strict limits on how many visitors can be in each conservancy at any time.  Second, there is no rule against driving off-road to photograph like there is in the Reserve and in Serengeti.  Third, I came to photograph the big cats and I saw and photographed many, many more big cats in the Ol Kinyei and Olare Motorogi Conservancies in 2022 than I did in the Serengeti in 2018.

The conservancies are the only bright spot in the relentless push to ranch/farm more wild lands.  If you are thinking of going on a safari in Kenya, please use a safari company that is involved in the movement to create more conservancies.  Wild lands are being lost every day.  There is a lot of information on the internet about the conservancies, including who the safari companies are that operate camps in them.  I used Gamewatchers Safaris.

Serval

Serval, Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya

This is a photo of a serval.

When I arrived at Gamewatchers Safaris’ Porini Lion Camp, the first cat I expected to see was, well, a lion, and hopefully a whole pride of lions.  As it turned out, the first cat or cats I saw were three cheetah brothers and, a few minutes later, this serval cat who was walking around near us and the cheetahs.  The serval is a  beautiful little cat about the size of our bobcats here in North America.   I don’t know how it survives with all the bigger predators, but it does.  Maybe the big cats understand that it mainly feeds on rodents and insects and thus isn’t competing with them for food.

African Lion, Cheetah, Leopard

Cheetah Mother in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya.

This is a photo of a mother cheetah that has climbed part way up a tree in Kenya.

To finish the story I started a week or so ago, after those great four days with Gamewatchers Safaris in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy just north of the Maasai Mara Reserve, I spent the next four days at Gamewatchers’ Porini Lion Camp in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy.  As the name implies, there are a lot of lions in the conservancy where Gamewatchers’ Porini Lion Camp is located.  They were easy to find and photograph.   I also saw and photographed leopards on two of the four days and saw and photographed cheetahs every day.  Like during my previous four days in the Ol Kinyei Conservancy, I had an excellent guide in Nelson Keiwua.  With us every day was Nelson’s spotter, John Tompoi.  I think I’m pretty good at spotting wildlife, but Nelson and John are in another league.

It was hard deciding on a photo here, but I finally decided on this cheetah mom who had three cubs.  I spent a fair amount of time photographing her and, especially, her three rambunctious cubs.  I already want to go back.