The highlight of our safari in August 2019 to Angola was a visit to Cangandala National Park, to find an animal that I had heard about and always wanted to see. The giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani) is Angola’s national symbol. It is a subspecies of sable antelope and ...
We came across a distinctive track in the dust. A large three-toed pad, unique in the African bush. They identify the presence of the only mammal species with three toes on both front and rear feet, the rhinocerous. This mammal is fast disappearing, mainly because of Man´s greed and a ...
December 2018 I looked out of the window of the Cessna Caravan 12-seater aircraft as it banked and descended. The aquamarine waters of Lake Tanganyika contrasted with the emerald vegetation of the fields. A couple of days ago Laurence and Alana, my two eldest children, were at university in opposite ...
Africa is still the Dark Continent. It is replete with mysteries, wonders and misconceptions, among other treasures. Consider Rwanda, for example. This is a tiny country in the Great Lakes region of Africa, a little to the west of giant Lake Victoria. Few people outside Africa know where it is, ...
I sit in a mokoro, or African dug-out canoe, my eyes only a metre above the waterline. My feet are stretched out before me, with my camera gear between my knees, and I am resting on a cushion, with the expert poler standing behind me. I have no idea how ...
We were in the Okavango Delta, on the edge of an island of woodland overlooking an open floodplain, sipping cocktails and enjoying the changing sky; the evolving russets, oranges and reds of the sunset. I was with a wonderful family from California - three generations, so there was quite a ...
An essential requirement for a species is that they can reproduce and have fertile offspring. Clearly if they cannot do so, they become extinct. Most hybrids such as a liger, which results when a lion and a tiger mate, are infertile. The same occurs when a horse is cross-bred with ...
Ngorongoro Crater is a marvel of geology. It is a fully intact 280km2 unbroken caldera situated in the heart of the Great Rift Valley. The rim of the caldera is around 1,800m (6,000 ft) above sea level. Standing on the forested and misty slopes of the eastern rim offers astounding ...
Today is World Wildlife Day. Each year the United Nations chooses a different theme to highlight the threat to wildlife on our planet and raise awareness. This year the theme is "The future of elephants is in our hands". Sadly, this statement has never been more true. I was born and ...
One morning, while we were out in the Serengeti Plains looking for cheetah, we came across a solitary female who looked hungry and appeared to be working the scrubby bushes as if she was hunting hares. We watched as she swept the area for some time, until she suddenly stopped ...
Uganda is not a big cat destination, and becomes a place we often visit to track the rare mountain gorillas. This is a fantastic experience but, whenever I am in a country, I have a yearning to see more of it. In January I was guiding a safari there tracking ...
The Land-cruiser stopped so that we could watch a group of chattering banded mongooses rushing across the track. Every now and then one would stand on his hind legs and look around in case there was danger. While there one of us noticed a water monitor lizard lounging over an acacia branch above us. He seemed to have an ideal spot to enjoy a cool breeze, and we wouldn’t have noticed him if we hadn’t been parked underneath him. Then something flashed past the front of the Land-Cruiser, and a second later we heard the squealing of a distraught mongoose.
