African wild dogs are a specialty of our trips to Botswana. We don’t always see them, but chances are much higher than on our East African trips. On this particular afternoon in northern Botswana, we caught up to a pack of twenty or so wild dogs as they were winding down for the day. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second.

While in Botswana years ago, my guide predicted the daily rounds of a particular honey badger near a local village. We quickly created a makeshift blind out of cardboard boxes and I crawled inside. It didn’t take long for the honey badger (also known as a ratel) to show up and start sniffing around. Here’s one of the many portraits I captured that day. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 300mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/320th of a second.

One species we definitely won’t be seeing next week in Kenya is the meerkat. Their range is in the southern part of Africa. I took this photo on my first trip to Botswana back in 2011. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 25mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/640th of a second.

There are seventeen recognized species of genet. This is the extravagantly named common genet. I’ve only seen these guys a few times while in Africa. They are nocturnal and crepuscular (which if you’re a close follower of this blog, you know means active at dawn and dusk). This one came creeping around at dinner time, attracted no doubt by the smell of food at the camp we were staying at in Botswana. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 270mm) ISO 640, f/4 at 1/60th of a second, Nikon SB-900 flash units.

This was one of the smallest elephants I’ve ever seen. And the poor little guy appeared to have a foreshortened trunk — perhaps an injury where he lost the bottom half of it. Nevertheless he/she was doing just fine and playing with the other elephants in the herd. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/400th of a second.

One of my favorite sightings of all time was this pangolin that Karen and I came across on our honeymoon trip to Botswana. It wasn’t just the pangolin — there was also a young leopard playing with the pangolin as if it was his toy. The pangolin would curl into a ball, using its hard armor for protection. The leopard kept falling asleep and the pangolin would start to sneak away, only to have the leopard wake again and pounce. This went on for a few hours before the pangolin finally outlasted the leopard and made the final escape into the Botswanan night. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/400th of a second.

I posted a sunset shot of a black-backed jackal a few weeks ago. Here’s one early morning, prowling through the dry grasslands of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. These guys have a varied diet and are opportunistic when it comes to finding the next meal — everything from crickets and termites, to rodents and other small mammals. They also love to get in on a larger kill after lions and other predators have moved on. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 550mm with 1.4 teleconverter) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.

I photographed this black-backed jackal very late in the day in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. The landscape is so flat that the sun has nowhere to hide until hitting the horizon — enabling rich, saturated colors just before the light disappears. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second.

The African wildcat looks almost identical to a common house cat — except they live out amongst the elephants and giraffes. They are, in fact, relatives to the domestic cat, they are mainly nocturnal and they hunt mice, rats, birds, reptiles and insects. I photographed this one in northern Botswana while on a night safari. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-900 flash units.

If there’s one thing meerkats are great at, it’s surveillance. There’s always a group on guard, taking their turn to safeguard the mob (that’s what a group of meerkats is officially called). Usually they’re a bit closer together, but they must have felt a need to spread out to get a better look at any would-be predators. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 110mm) ISO 400, f/22 at 1/160th of a second.