Images of the African bush

Aubrey

Aubrey

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Mar 28, 1999
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My gorgeous wife and I just returned form 10 days in the African bush. Wish I could say we slept under a tree and ate what we could catch ....but then, you would also note I didn't say my gorgeous ex-wife :D

The area is the Kruger National park in SA which is roughly 1.5x the size of Israel. Bush varies from a dense thorn bushveld to a mopani bushveld with some semi-tropical bush in the south. It is mid winter heer so no rain for 3-4 months now. Brown bush colours and some trees shed their leaves.

Here are some images of what we got to see and if you make one trip in your life ....this one is worth every cent of it.

Equipment used was a Nikon D300 with a 80-400 VR Nikor lens

A boabab tree. Local legend has it that God lost his temper with humans and kicked the tree out of heaven. It landed upside down and that is how it grows till today. Fruit in early summer and very rich in Vit C. Get's to around 4000 years old and at that stage has a dia of 60ft.

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No rain so dusty skies gives lovely orange sunsets that rolls over to pink just before completely dark.

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Male lion. The blacker the mane, the more testosterone he has. Dominant male is nearly completely black. Male weights around 500 lbs, females around 400 lbs.

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Female lioness.

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Here we were about 20ft away in a bird hide .... a whole elephant herd made their way for some water. Mom is pregnant for 22 months, baby weighs around 200lbs when born. Bulls reach 13000 lbs and females around 11000 lbs.

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Ground hornbill. Walks all day long and is about 2ft high. Has lovely eye lashes. Eats small prey and bugs.

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The most dangerous of the big 4. Kills more people in Africa than any other. Male hippo weighs in at 3500 lbs and females just a tad less. Feeds at night on grasses but is very aggresive and attacks with little provocation. Territorial bull will atack watercraft with little warning.

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Girrafe. Horns are tough tuffs of hair but very dense and strong. About 18ft tall and weighs in at just under 3900 lbs.

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This rhino was darted and is being led to a cage for transport to it's new home. Having no natural enemies and a save area leads to over population. After being measured and weighed (this male came to 5238 lbs) he is brough around a little and towed blindfolded to the cage.

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Here you can see how strong my wife is ....she held this baby rhino of 1000 lbs down with one hand and had time for a smile.

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Kudo bulls ....both young and not sexually active yet. Will be another 2-3 years for the two to have wives.

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Buffalo male ......another one of the big 5. This is a herd of around 300's dominant bull and he refused to allow us to pass ...we sat for 30 minutes and he glared at us. Weighing in at 2900 lbs, not a toy :p

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Lilac breasted roller ....eats small bugs and you can see the mud on the beak. This is the male.

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Yellow beaked hornbill .....eats bugs and seeds but not the most intelligent bird. Same sub species as ground horn bill but only 6 inches tall.

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Zebra female and young ......

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Incredible pics! Thanks for sharing. I've always dreamed of getting over there and seeing what you saw in person. Those kudo bulls are very majestic looking animals!

Professor.
 
Blue wildebeest .... tough as nails but very stupid.
Gathers in large herds.

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This gent to exception to our presence and charged us ...note the extended ears ...as if he needs to look bigger at 13 000 lbs. Manages to run at 35mph but the Landy was a little faster. Like humans, elephants are left or right handed ...or tisked in their case. They favor one tusk and a small groove developes on the tip and with ongoing use, the tusk normally breaks at this groove ....however, in this case as this one is right tusked, he likely broke his tusk trying to lever a large tree or object. The tusk are not replaced but elephants have mollars replced every few years with the last set coming in at 45-47 years old. When this is worn down, they die of malnutrition. Elephants needs to consume around 450 lbs of plan matter a day and feeds for 20 hours each day. Drinks around 70 gallons of water a time and water has to be clear. Current elephant populatrion in Kruger is 15000 and prposed number is only 5000. Assuming half are adults and as each elephant breaks one tree a day, they are causingmajor habitat changes in some areas. This year they wil commence culling again aftre a recess iof 10 years. The problem is now very big so expect a lot of tree huggers goings bananas when they hear this.

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Giraffe in close proximity to the blue wildebeest. Often grouped as they are not competing for food .....girrafe browses the trees and blue wildebeest eats grasses. Cow does not kneel to give birth so babies first experience is dropping 6ft onto the ground. That kind of wakes things up right away.

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Dominant kudu bull leaving his scent trail on a bush.

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Bataleur eagle. One of the larger birds of prey in Africa.

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Small bachelors herd of male buffalo drinking water.

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The male elephant pushed over a tree right next to the road and proceeded to eat the roots. I took this image purely to get a texture shot :D

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It kinda makes me laugh that I was sooo excited at the prospect of seeing an Elk when I was in the Ozarks last week.

Thanks for the pictures. Really stunning.
 
Awesome pictures and I am jealous I wish the part of Africa that I frequent looked like that.
 
Brilliant stuff Aubrey. That looks like an absolutely fantastic trip. I love some of the close ups - the Lioness and Elephant texture. Also loved the shot of the Zebras - head & hind quarters. South Africa is on one of my want lists of places to go. Thanks for sharing your amazing pictures.

Regarding the 80-400mm how do you like it as a lens? I have an 18-200 VR and really like it a lot. Are you able to shoot at 400 mm without a tripod? Judging from your shots, you have a lot of light to work with, but I'm just curious.
 
kgd said:
Brilliant stuff Aubrey. That looks like an absolutely fantastic trip. I love some of the close ups - the Lioness and Elephant texture. Also loved the shot of the Zebras - head & hind quarters. South Africa is on one of my want lists of places to go. Thanks for sharing your amazing pictures.

Regarding the 80-400mm how do you like it as a lens? I have an 18-200 VR and really like it a lot. Are you able to shoot at 400 mm without a tripod? Judging from your shots, you have a lot of light to work with, but I'm just curious.
Click to expand...

I have the 18-200 VR Nikor as my everyday lense and all shots taken above were without a tripod but seated and vehicle switched off in all cases of long shots. I also have a 70-300mm Nikor VR and would suggest the 400mm option for Africa.
 
Wow.... The trip of a lifetime. Ive always wanted to see Africa.

Great pics, thanks for sharing.
 
Great pictures, thank you very much for sharing them :thumbup:. What a different world :) I hope to take a trip there sometime.
 
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