African Wild Cat, Linyanti Concession, Botswana
A friend of mine recently asked if I ever look at giraffes or elephants while on safari and think about how amazing it is that such large beasts roam around in the wild. My answer, of course, was yes — but even more amazing to me is that this little cat that looks like it should be crawling out of a little box in my apartment, roams around in the wild amongst lions and leopards. It’s an African wildcat and it is, in fact, an ancestor of the domestic house cat. It’s believed that African wildcats were first domesticated some 9,000 years ago. They are mainly active during the night, which is when we came across this one, well after the sun had set.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-900 flash, balanced with a spotlight