WILDLIFE BLOG

We always take care when walking around outside because we live very close to the National Park. In fact, there is a lot of wildlife living on our side of the river, even thought it's not actually National Park. So it is with a small pride of 5 lions which have been seen (and heard!) on several occasions around our house and in the nearby area. I have often seen lion foot prints outside our house [...]

Here's a taste of what's going on now! The sky is blue, the grass is green, and everything is vibrant and healthy. It's also very humid and the birds are noisy in the trees. All the trees have grown new leaves, and there are little 'windows' into the bush everywhere. Fat impalas feed on the new grass. The elephants are probably happiest of all, having suffered heavily through the shortages of last year. They are looking [...]

In the early rains, the grass is the first to grow, shooting up and covering the park in a lush green carpet. But it's almost too green for taking photos as the brightness of the grass detracts from the subject. With this in mind, I took some shots over the weekend to illustrate.....

In front of our house, a group of bull elephants were messing around in the muddy water. Soon a tussle began between two of the sub-adults and they were shoving and wresting each other on the slippery ground. A small calf with her mother (seen in the background) headed off to a safer place at the sight of the boisterous boys!

For me, 2014 will be the year of interactions. I saw so many interesting, unusual and touching moments between individuals of the same species, or between competitors. The album below (which will get captions soon!) brings the highlights of the year......although of course the real highlight of the year doesn't come until the end. Happy New Year! An image from the UK early in the year, when a mature Roe Buck approached to a distance of [...]

In Zambia, we're right at the end of the dry season, there's not a blade of grass anywhere and many animals are choosing to rest and conserve energy rather than expend effort searching for the very small amount of remaining sustenance. But in the last week or so, the Wild Mango trees have come into fruit. Not a moment too early for the elephants who gorge themselves on the soft, sweet fruits, and often fight with [...]

In the early hours of the morning, we found a large pride lying out in an open area. The boys didn't seem too happy with each other - perhaps one of them stepped out of line. One certainly had a grumpy look on his face... But the cubs were OK, happily playing, stalking each other and posing in the morning sunlight!