I mentioned earlier in the week that you won’t find anything on the African plains much cuter than a baby giraffe. I left the door open a bit because there are a few legitimate contenders. Baby elephants being one of them. I met this little guy in Botswana on my last trip to Africa. The poor little thing had a foreshortened trunk, perhaps a birth defect, but more likely the result of an encounter with a predator.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/250th of a second

It was brought to my attention today that this past Saturday was World Pangolin Day — the forth annual such event to raise awareness of this amazing, yet endangered creature. Can’t believe I missed it. Here’s another shot of the rare pangolin/leopard encounter that I was privileged to witness on our most recent trip to Botswana. To recap, the young leopard was stalking the pangolin on and off for the good part of an afternoon. Most of the action took place in very high grass, making clear shots difficult, but worth the effort. Below is a shot of the pangolin in the clear.
Top Photo: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 135mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second
Bottom Photo: Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 220) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/8000th of a second

Despite their beautifully colored coats, large cats like leopards, jaguars and tigers all blend in quite nicely with their respective habitats. The alternating dark and light fur provides perfect camouflage amidst the light and shadows of the grasses and shrubs. This particular leopard is the one year old that I posted about a year and a half ago. We came upon a very rare find on safari — a pangolin (see post here for more on that encounter) and I was very excited to get out of the vehicle and down on the ground for some great eye-level action of one of Africa’s most elusive creatures. I couldn’t believe my bad luck when the guide told me that I had to stay in the vehicle — because there was a leopard stalking in the nearby grass. The leopard was right next to our vehicle and I didn’t even see him. How dare he ruin my shot. Of course, I quickly realized that it was actually amazing luck — not only to photograph a pangolin, but one being stalked by a leopard. We stayed there and watched them play their game of cat and mouse (the pangolin, of course, in the unfortunate role of the mouse) until the sun went down.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 240mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/250th of a second

Beneath all that sun flare is an elephant enjoying a drink of water before calling it a night. This one was taken in the Linyanti Concession of northern Botswana late one afternoon.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 95mm) ISO 400, f/22 at 1/60th of a second

Friday seems like as good a day as any to post another lion cub. This little one hails from the Central Kalahari Desert in Botswana. He/she seemed to be feeling ferociously confident — albeit hiding behind the safety of mom and dad.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 300mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second

I caught this meerkat late in the day making a dash across a patch of sandy ground. Meerkats are always aware of raptors, jackals and other predators lurking about and they much prefer grassy areas to hide in as opposed to more barren desert. That being said, they’ll risk the exposure to hunt for scorpions, their favorite meal.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/640th of a second

You have to work a bit for this one, but there’s a cheetah in there — lower left hand corner, just in front of the termite mound. I captured this image late one afternoon on my first trip to Botswana just over three years ago.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 75mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/200th of a second

People seem to be of mixed minds about the honey badger. I for one, think they are pretty cool animals — true scrappers able to defend themselves against much larger beasts. This guy didn’t quite know what to think about me when he saw me crouched down in the grass just outside of my tent in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second

It was past sunset and actually much darker than it appears when I took this photo of two giraffes in Botswana. I upped the ISO to 3200 and opened up the aperture to its widest setting in order to avoid any motion blur on the slowly moving giraffes — while still adding quite a bit of light to the scene.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 75mm) ISO 3200, f/2.8 at 1/250th of a second

It was twilight, and this leopard was just waking up from a nap. We watched her for quite some time as she climbed down the tree, stalked through the grass, and jumped up on a termite mound to get a better view of any unsuspecting prey. By then it was quite dark so we left her to her hunt and headed back to camp.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/200th of a second