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Photos from Kruger National Park, wildlife photos etc....

Absent the chance to head out to Africa last year, I had to settle with taking my father to the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent for a day with their head of photography. So canned animals, but a great chance to get relatively close up (70-200 instead of 500+). If not suitable for the thread please let me know and I’ll take them down.


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Asian Leopard (China)
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Puma (South America)
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Rusty spotted cat (Sri Lanka)
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Pallas cat, aka Manul (Mongolia/Russia)
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Pallas cat
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Puma
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Lion
 
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Fabulous cats there BTC3 - is that a Serval (first and third pic) and Caracal (second and sixth)? Our friends - keen photographers - spotted a caracal in Kruger a couple of weeks ago but it was such a fleeting glance they both missed out on a photograph . They are very rare (mainly nocturnal) and very elusive. We did once see an African Wild Cat (your fourth and fifth pics, right?). Thanks!
 
Finally, after 40 days in Kruger over the past couple of years, we saw our first cheetah. There aren't many around but we had a good view of at this one, just 400m inside the park near the road to Orpen Gate.

We had time to watch as it scanned the impala grazing in the area. We figured not much would happen until later / cooler in the afternoon so we went to the office to check in, bought a couple of beers then went back to watch... As hoped, he / she finally made its move on the impala with a chase. Total chaos, animals darting everywhere but the outcome was unknown. My wife had a decent view and I managed a couple of blurred shots of which this is the best. It may be a long time before we get that opportunity again.

Immediately after, at least 4 hyena ran towards where the kill had (or had not) happened - so we suspect cheetah's ownership of any carcass would have been short-lived. It's wild out there.

Cheetah sitting 22_02 by Ian123_running, on Flickr

Cheetah in flight 22_02 by Ian123_running, on Flickr
 
ian123running said:
Fabulous cats there BTC3 - is that a Serval (first and third pic) and Caracal (second and sixth)? Our friends - keen photographers - spotted a caracal in Kruger a couple of weeks ago but it was such a fleeting glance they both missed out on a photograph . They are very rare (mainly nocturnal) and very elusive. We did once see an African Wild Cat (your fourth and fifth pics, right?). Thanks!
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Thanks Ian!
I’ve added some captions for the cats. I have a shot of a wild cat and of a caracal (from the same day) that I’ll try to post up - Lightroom and my phone aren’t cooperating at the moment...
I like your cheetah shots! I was lucky enough to spend about 40mins watching one in Botswana about 10 years ago. It eventually loped off, rather than taking off, so static shots only. I’ll see if I can track that down too.
 
Just received this note from Sam Cox who guided us on our photography trip last month: " ...the effect of Covid-19 has been disastrous on lodging and tourism of the area and we are most definitely a part of that. All safaris planned have been cancelled, with guests being asked to postpone their trip. The doors are shut for the next few months..."

Sad, and also thinking of all the fabulous SanParks workers, guides and support people in the Kruger National Park itself who normally look after thousands of visitors.
 
Not good news for South Africa when the economy and the Rand are both already suffering badly from other factors given that wildlife tourism is such an important part of their economy.
 
ian123running said:
Just received this note from Sam Cox who guided us on our photography trip last month: " ...the effect of Covid-19 has been disastrous on lodging and tourism of the area and we are most definitely a part of that. All safaris planned have been cancelled, with guests being asked to postpone their trip. The doors are shut for the next few months..."

Sad, and also thinking of all the fabulous SanParks workers, guides and support people in the Kruger National Park itself who normally look after thousands of visitors.
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Yes, it's a terrible situation. We had to delay our usual planned Jan/ Feb trip due to Mrs C's health complications and it soon became clear that the delay would be far longer than anticipated. Been monitoring the situation there for some time and it has rapidly deteriorated. SA have recently applied severe immigration restrictions at airports now and the travel business is effectively closed down to International visitors.

To make matters worse, our beloved wildearth.TV programme, featuring twice daily live safaris broadcast on the net from Djuma has gone from a period of expansion last summer to a probable complete end to the operation in a week's time.

Townships in the major cities facing disaster too.Featured on breakfast TV today.
 
Heads up for those with Kruger withdrawal symptoms.

wildearth.tv runs 2 live safaris from the area twice daily, available on youtube. All the re runs too if you miss live.

They have just included Ngala so have 3 crews running now.

https://www.andbeyond.com/our-lodge...te-game-reserve/andbeyond-ngala-safari-lodge/

Ngala has 2 white lions, only 3 known in the world. We've been there twice and it is an amazing place. On the last visit, rangers asked us what we were really wanting to see. 'Leopard in a tree please' 30 mins later....
 
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