This black howler monkey was hanging out in a tree above the flooded grasslands of the Pantanal in Brazil. They are a sexually dimorphic species, meaning the males and females have contrasting coloring. The males (like this guy) are almost uniformly black, while the females and young are mostly golden in color. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 550 with 1.4 teleconverter) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second
This was one of the first opossums I captured when I started camera trapping in my backyard four years ago. A young one, out searching for a snack in the middle of the night. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/14 at 1/80th of a second, Cognisys camera box, trail monitor and flash units).
I captured this white rhinoceros crossing a dry river bed as we were leaving Nairobi National Park on the final night of our trip to Kenya last April. The horizontal layers of color on the rhino almost mimick the colors of the sky. You can also see deep scratches across the upper body of the rhino, likely from branches and thorns while walking through the thick bushes. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 450, f/2.8 at 1/400th of a second.
I met this handsome guy on our trip to the Galápagos Islands back in 2012. In fact, I met a lot of these guys. They’re everywhere in the Galápagos and each island has its own slight color variation. This one was on Fernandina Island where they tended to have a bit more orange mixed in with the black, along with a touch of green. As the name suggests, they live in and out of the water. They eat the seaweed and algae on the ocean floor but then return to land to spend a good portion of the day sunning themselves on the volcanic rock of the islands. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/250th of a second.
Due to the red dirt of Samburu National Reserve in the north of Kenya, the elephants take on a much more reddish tint than their identical, but grey, counterparts in the south. I used my wide-angle lens for this one, when the entire herd walked past us about ten feet away. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 24-70mm lens (at 24mm) ISO 250, f/2.8 at 1/800th of a second.
Tasmanian devils are the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial. They once thrived throughout Australia, but are now confined to the island state of Tasmania. Their numbers have been plummeting due to the lethal facial tumor disease. There seems to be no stopping the disease, which is spread through social interaction when they nip and bite each other. Saving this iconic symbol of Tasmania might mean they have to first go extinct in the wild, before healthy populations, raised in quarantined areas, can be released to re-populate. Many captive breeding centers have sprung up throughout Tasmania and the southern Australia mainland. This devil was photographed at one of these centers adjacent to Cradle Mountain National Park. I also saw and photographed a few devils in the wild, where they are strictly nocturnal. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 2000, f/4 at 1/160th of a second.
Here’s another look at the Guianan cock-of-the-rock, one of the key species I went to Guyana to photograph last February. Certainly one of the most unique birds I’ve had the pleasure of viewing in the wild. Seeing that bright reddish-orange plumage contrasted against all the green of the Iwokrama rainforest was pretty spectacular. Not to mention, it has one of the coolest beaks around (although that black-lined disk isn’t actually the beak, but rather an ornamental crest). The beak is quite small and at the tip of the crest. The rainforests of Guyana are among the four most pristine tropical forests in the world. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 500mm PF lens, ISO 6400, f/5.6 at 1/100th of a second.
I was able to lower the camera into the grass for this portrait of a black-backed jackal. We saw quite a few of these crafty scavengers on our last trip to Kenya in April — this one at the Ol Pajeta Conservancy in Laikipia. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 160, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.
We will be visiting mountain gorillas in Uganda again in June of 2025. Here’s one from our 2023 trip to Mgahinga National Park. The family of nine had three silverback males, which is unusual for such a small family. This guy was relaxing, while keeping a close eye on the rest of the family. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 155mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/320th of a second.
This one goes back to 2008 when I traveled to the Pampas region of Bolivia. It’s difficult to make an exact identification as there are multiple species of mouse opossum, but I believe this to be the Linnaeus’s mouse opossum — a nocturnal marsupial I spotted on a night hike. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 200, f/6.3 at 1/60th of a second.