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Look how beautiful he is with his majestic strength.
Masai Mara, Kenya
**UPDATE** I'm caught up after this batch. So now I can start posting some fun local wildlife and (maybe) landscapes.
I haven't posted on Flickr in so long I almost forgot how :) I have been posting on Instagram sporadically. So I'm going to start dumping those photos on here to catch up. I miss my interaction with my Flickr contacts. I'll do my best to catch up with everyone's stream.
Khwai Concession | Botswana
After missing out Lions everywhere we went, finally we saw a few, even if only lazy sleeping, beneath a small bush directly besides the road... better said, our travel partners saw them, we just drove by, as we lead and navigated through the area.
© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com
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For more information about my art: info@benheine.com
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Take Me As I Am
A poem by Peter S. Quinn
Take me as I am let me be a twist
A carefree word here to adhere
For knitting down the gist
Inside heart-roots gone austere
Like a love that begins from inside
And brings out a beautiful bright
Like a ray that in a shade might hide
Or a beam in an evening's flight
Give same love life’s giving about
Though sideways are with bare trees
And the morning is still in its doubt
For the coming of summer's breeze
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The poem appeared on www.poemhunter.com/peter-s-quinn
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and a World Heritage Site located in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area has a healthy resident population of most species of wildlife. Common in the area are hartebeest, spotted hyena, and jackals amongst other wildlife.
The annual ungulate migration passes through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with 1.7 million wildebeest, 260,000 zebra, and 470,000 gazelles moving south into the area in December and moving north in June. This movement changes seasonally with the rains, but the migration traverses almost the entire plains in search of food.
This beautiful Lioness on the hunt, was captured on a late evening game drive on a Photography safari, inside the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.
the one-eyed Buffalo
South Luangwa Valley, Zambia
explore # 334, 14.12.11
All rights reserved. Copyright Thomas Retterath 2011
in front of our tent at Little Makololo Camp, Hwange NP. Zimbabwe
All rights reserved. © Thomas Retterath 2013
It's commonly thought that a pride of lion comprises a single dominant male and his females, this is not the case. A territory is held by several males in partnership known as a coalition. There can be between two or more males in a coalition and their territory overlaps with a number of different mutually exclusive female territories. Working as a team, it is easier to dispossess older lions of their domain and keep hyenas at bay, lions’ chief competition. Collectively the males are a stronger force, can defend a larger territory and protect more females. They will split up to do patrols but rejoin as necessity requires. The coalition may be, but not always, made up of brothers. In this instance, the cooperative effort serves the perpetuity of the family genes.
The young Prince Olosiado of the Black Rock Pride was seen very well fed after the previous nights hunt, who still require some grooming to rid himself of any blood stains, and was captured during a Photography Safari on an early morning game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.
Nice fellow was closed enough before the rangers arrived and blocked the road to keep him away, so we dont anoy him.
Die Leopardin "Luluka" auf ihren Hinterläufen (Masai Mara, Kenia).
The leopardess "Luluka" on her hind legs (Maasai Mara, Kenya).
South Luangwa Valley, Zambia
explore # 129, 25.12.2011
All rights reserved. Copyright Thomas Retterath 2011
Lions are unique among cats in that they live in a group, or pride. The members of a pride typically spend the day in several scattered groups that may unite to hunt or share a meal. A pride consists of several generations of lionesses, some of which are related, a smaller number of breeding males, and their cubs. Each pride has a well-defined territory consisting of a core area that is strictly defended against intruding lions and a fringe area where some overlap is tolerated. Some prides have been known to use the same territory for decades, passing the area on between females.
King Mdogo of Kilo Saba Pride was seen sitting comfortably on the savannah plains during a photography safari on an early morning game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.
On our last safari day we got into a buffalo sandwich, where a herd of buffalo is walking towards the jeep then splitting up and passing us on both sides. A spectacular finish of our safari trip.
Watching a leopard in his natural environment was one of the most exciting moments I had during my Tanzanian safari.
We stopped to observe the beast for almost one hour: he was sleeping on the tree, then he woke up and jumped down, ready to hunt. We watched him lying in ambush, but actually he was not so hungry: better for the antelopes ;)
View on black!
just walking on the street, singing:
Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo
Just back from a fabulous big cat Safari to Ngorongoro, Ndutu and Serengeti in search of the great migration.
If anyone has ever been to the Serengeti, especially the busy Seronera area, he will know how lucky you are, when you have a sighting like this without any other vehicle around.
Now, what can I say, we´ve been that lucky.
While other visitors where watching a bushbuck staring in one direction (a sign that there is a predator around), our guide said, that he heard a strange call of a guinea fowl.
So he said, let´s go there, they usually only call that way, when there is danger around.
What can I say, we drove 1 km and there he came.
Just for us. Saimon, our guide, was yelling and screaming from one ear to the other.
What a sighting!
Just to tell: in the morning we saw a leopard moving in the gras while exactly 50 cars were watching the cat (believe me, I counted!).
All rights reserved. © Thomas Retterath 2013
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nThambo Tree Camp | SOUTH AFRICA
Such an intimate moment with this beauty. So lucky being able, or better blessed to observe them this close.
Die Leopardin "Luluka" im wunderschönen Morgenlicht (Masai Mara, Kenia).
The leopardess "Luluka" in the beautiful morning light (Maasai Mara, Kenya).
TIMBAVATI GAME RESERVE | SOUTH AFRICA
Doesn't exactly look like the most comfortable position, but well hidden he was for sure.
We stayed maybe for a good 20minutes there, before he decided to slumber away and didn't move a muscle.
Red-billed Oxpeckers on a wounded Cape Buffalo (Buphagus erythrorynchus)(Syncerus caffer caffer). Biyamiti, Kruger National Park, South Africa.
The Cape Buffalo has been gored by another buffalo creating this wound. The Oxpecker birds will peck at this wound to keep it open so that they can feed on the blood.
Two Lions (panthera leo) coming up the road early in the morning in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa
The lion (Panthera leo) is a species in the family Felidae.
Lions live in large groups called prides. A pride consists of multiple related females and their dependent offspring along with two or three unrelated males. A typical pride has about 15 members, although some prides as large as 40 members have been observed.
Lions spend much of their time resting; they are inactive for about 20 hours per day. Although lions can be active at any time, their activity generally peaks after dusk with a period of socialising, grooming and defecating. Intermittent bursts of activity continue until dawn, when hunting most often takes place.
Female lions, sisters, live together for life. Their female cubs also stay with the pride, even after they’re grown, but male cubs must venture out on their own once they reach maturity.
This beautiful Queen of the Savannah was captured during a photography safari on an early morning game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.
South Africa.
Hluhluwe Game Reserve. Hluhluwe is pronounced something like "Shluh-shloo-ee".
KwaZulu-Natal
The white rhinoceros or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 20,405 wild-living animals in 2013, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros. The northern subspecies has very few remaining, with only four confirmed individuals left (three females and one male), all in captivity.
A popular theory of the origins of the name "white rhinoceros" is a mistranslation from Dutch to English. The English word "white" is said to have been derived by mistranslation of the Dutch word "wijd", which means "wide" in English. The word "wide" refers to the width of the rhinoceros' mouth. So early English-speaking settlers in South Africa misinterpreted the "wijd" for "white" and the rhino with the wide mouth ended up being called the white rhino and the other one, with the narrow pointed mouth, was called the black rhinoceros. Ironically, Dutch (and Afrikaans) later used a calque of the English word, and now also call it a white rhino.
Ein Löwenjunges des "Topi pride" Löwenrudels in der Masai Mara (Kenia).
A cub from the "Topi" lion pride in the Maasai Mara (Kenya).
Most lionesses reproduce by the time they are four years of age. Lions do not mate at a specific time of year and the females are polyestrous.
Usually, the mother does not integrate herself and her cubs back into the pride until the cubs are six to eight weeks old. Sometimes this introduction to pride life occurs earlier, particularly if other lionesses have given birth at about the same time. When first introduced to the rest of the pride, lion cubs lack confidence when confronted with adults other than their mother. They soon begin to immerse themselves in the pride life, however, playing among themselves or attempting to initiate play with the adults.
The Queen of Rekero was resting in the grass nearby as her three very cute cubs were busy playing with each other. Captured during a Photography Safari on a late evening game drive in the Rekero area of Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.