On safari-- wildlife and nature photos

Okavango Delta Click to enlarge

A day in the life of a cheetah

Point to the images for captions, then click to enlarge them. One of the calls of Africa, the spotted hyena, can be heard in this chapter

Grassland hunter... on the prowl at Mombo, in Botswana's Okavango Delta. The photograph on the left, 'Coat of arms', is one of my favorites. It was my first full day on safari and my first encounter with a cheetah. And the image will be forever evocative of the African wilderness I first knew: the deep green and pale gold of the delta as lushness and dryness exist side-by-side for much of the year; and set against this background, the cheetah in classic dog-like pose on a termite mound, surveying the dry flood-plain for prey

She flushes and quickly runs down a reedbuck

Is it safe to eat here? If lion or hyena detect her, she'll surrender her kill without argument, rather than become a victim herself

  

She's not disturbed, and spends all day alternately eating and resting in her grassy hiding place. More cheetah stories and images can be found on these pages: Spots 'n' blotches,  Cheetah brothers,  Kwando Reserve,  the Masai Mara

        

A big delight in the Okavango Delta is to experience a mokoro (dugout canoe) voyage along the myriad of channels, to stop occasionally and (carefully) watch hippos in deeper water, and walk on the many islands to observe such wildlife as red lechwe

Home from the hunt

        

Spotted hyena, after a night's raging in the Okavango Delta; a wild dog sentinel awaiting the pack's return to the den from hunting; a young ratel, or honey badger, a blur of action as it bravely charges a safari vehicle; and a giraffe sedately moving away

      

And not far from the cheetah's hiding place, the local lions begin resting up from their own night out. An adolescent stares at the camera with youthful curiosity

          

At the Chobe River, Botswana's northern frontier, a herd of elephants joyfully ends a thirsty day; a solitary elephant takes a break in the heat of the day; an African fish eagle takes flight; and a puku, an antelope of the Kobus genus

Read my published accounts of this safari
"Africa for beginners" and
"Awed by jaws of death"

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Equipment used in Botswana: Pentax Spotmatic with Sigma 70-210 mf zoom, Konica Super XG 400 and Kodak Gold 400. The Maplink to the left shows where the photographs were taken. Go to the menu below for more images from Africa and elsewhere. Big cats, other predators, elephants and other herbivores all feature in the Linyanti (Botswana), Kenya, Zimbabwe and slideshow pages

Index of chapters Portfolio (5 pages) African slideshows Australian slideshow Guest photographer Spots 'n' blotches Browsers & grazers Okavango Delta Walking in Zimbabwe Faces on safari The Outback (3 pages) The River Murray Wildlife carers Introducing Linyanti Cheetah brothers Selinda's birdlife Kenya's Masai Mara Big cats The Adelaide Hills Aussie birds Niugini days Lions of Selinda Heavyweight herbivores Kwando Reserve Kenya: Samburu Elephants Kangaroo Island Victoria About Afrigalah Links

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© 1996-2007 Copyright photographs, graphics and text: John Milbank, except where otherwise denoted