Safari Soul Searching

I have gone on 10 safaris to southern Africa. Three of those safaris were photography safaris, although in reality I made all of them into photography safaris. 

But I don’t know that I will be doing any more.

My most recent photo safari, to Tanzania, raised some serious ethical issues in my mind. And frankly, I don’t know that I can ever be a part of what I witnessed again.

The first instance involved a safari guide driving a Land Cruiser, the vehicle of choice for African safaris, into the brush where a male lion was sleeping. Other vehicles were nearby, waiting to see whether or not the lion would get up and perhaps make himself visible. Nobody did anything to force the lion to get up...except for one guide 

That driver decided to drive into the brush, toward the lion, and force the animal to interrupt his sleep and get up to avoid the vehicle. I was so upset that I yelled at the driver. Safari practice is to speak, if at all, in low voices so as not to disturb the animals. But I was so upset that I yelled without thinking about it. That experience with the irresponsible guide rattled me for the rest of the day.

Another issue that bothered me was that there were so many vehicles (at least 25 in most cases) that any time a wild animal was spotted, it was very quickly surrounded. Some animals could handle this, while others were clearly distressed. We saw two coalitions of cheetahs one morning. A coalition is a group of male cheetahs or lions that work together as a group to hunt and socialize. Members of coalitions are typically male littermates  that work together to defend a territory against other males. They often stay together for a lifetime.

One of the coalitions, perhaps older animals, seemed unfazed by the presence of 25 to 30 vehicles. They went about their business seemingly unperturbed.

The other, younger coalition, was clearly stressed and panicking. They trotted away from the gathering vehicles and seemed to be wanting to hunt. As a large group of vehicles surrounded them, the cheetahs had little means of escape. By this point, everyone in my vehicle agreed to take a few shots and leave the area. None of us wanted to be part of the ongoing harassment of these wild animals. We had invested a great deal of money to purchase cameras and lenses that allowed us to photograph animals from a comfortable distance rather than relying on our cell phones to capture that 'award winning' image.

These experiences really soured me on going on safari again. Our guides were wonderful, doing everything in a respectful and ethical manner. But I began to question whether I can ever enjoy a safari again, and whether I can justify, and accept, being part of a business that treats wildlife so disrespectfully. 

I'm sure the offending guides -- all guides must be licensed by the Tanzanian government -- were hoping for bigger tips by giving their clients up-close views of the animals. I get that, but that doesn't give anyone the right to harass and stress wild animals in their homes.

I take pride in being a moral, ethical, upstanding person who cares deeply about protecting animals both domestic and wild. I likewise care deeply about the environment.

I know that whether I am sitting in a Land Cruiser on another photo safari or whether I boycott future safaris, the vehicles will continue to chase wildlife for the satisfaction and enjoyment of their clients. Tourism is the second largest contributor to the economy of Tanzania (agriculture is #1), so if I'm not taking part, the industry and those whose livelihoods depend on it won't suffer. I am just one person.

I also know that the income derived from tourism helps to protect these animals and their habitat, as well as providing much-needed jobs for those in local communities.

The crowding of the animals was so bad that my group really savored wildlife viewing on the rare occasions when we were the only or one of a few vehicles present.

So I have a very important decision to make. I love visiting Africa and photographing its wildlife. But I won't sacrifice my personal beliefs to do so. And there are many countries I still hope to visit and a limited travel budget.

I don't know what my decision will be. I do know it isn't one I will make without a great deal of soul searching.

Under African Skies

Last year I took a 16-day photography trip to the west African country of Namibia.

One night -- thankfully, only one night -- we camped out in a remote location. Each of us was provided a tent, cot, sleeping bag and air mattress. While each piece individually was fine, the combination was not. As a result, I was unable to sleep even for a few hours. Even worse, I slid right off the cot and got wedged between the cot and one wall of the tent. After a struggle, I was able to get up, and I pulled everything off the cot and lay directly on the cot under a couple of blankets. The air mattress was history. But by then, the idea of sleep had left me.

As I lay in my tent, I observed the myriad of stars through the mesh top of the tent. The skies were incredibly clear, and never have I seen so many stars anywhere other than during previous trips to Arica.

The African sky also has the most glorious sunsets I have ever seen. The best ever was in South Africa. It was so magnificent that everyone in my vehicle urgently asked the guide to stop so we could photograph it. The sunset pictured was in Tanzania.

Even daylight sees the skies illuminating a glorious landscape of animals found nowhere else on earth. Giraffes of several species, zebras, baboons, wildebeests, lions, cheetahs, leopards and of course, African elephants live on the continent. There is nothing quite like falling asleep, or waking in the middle of the night, to the sound of a lion roaring.

I first visited Africa several years ago, and I quickly fell in love with the continent. Since then, I have returned a total of 11 times. Some of those trips, most of them in fact, were safaris. But three others took me to the northern African countries of Egypt, Ethiopia and Morocco.

I know that my view of Africa is a gilded one. There is rampant poverty throughout the continent. Society is very patriarchal. Many governments are incredibly corrupt. There are occasional terrorist attacks in Kenya and Nigeria. Civil war has destroyed many in Sudan. 

But the African people I have met have been wonderful, friendly and helpful. I sense that the people I encounter in the safari companies and at the various hotels and lodges where I have stayed truly enjoy their jobs. I have the sense that they aren't just going through the motions as they provide services to their guests.

I love going to Africa, as evidenced by my repeated trips
there. The opportunity to photograph African wildlife and experience the thrill of being close to these magnificent animals is beyond words. I am fortunate to let my cameras do the talking for me.

I can't wait for my next African adventure!

. 

Wild Africa

I've been longing to return to Africa and reminiscing about an amazing 3-week trip to Kenya in 2017.

That was my fifth trip to Africa, and my third to Kenya. I was joined by a friend from Scotland and a couple from England, all of whom I had met the previous year on a trip to Kenya. The trip saw us visiting four different camps in northern Kenya, for stays lasting from four to seven days each. 

This adventure was outstanding in so many ways. In addition to seeing and photographing lots of wild animals, we went for a horseback ride in Borana. We were able to get pretty close to giraffes and zebras, as well as enjoying the beautiful weather. We followed a pride of 15 lions one late afternoon, with two of the pride's three adult males walking just an arm's length from our vehicle. We watched a beautiful leopard and her cub over the course of three days. She was totally unperturbed by the presence of numerous safari vehicles.

Also while in Borana, we were part of a group that replaced a radio collar on a lioness. Once she was located, a Kenyan veterinarian tranquilized her with a rifle-fired dart. After she was down, she was quickly moved into the shade, her eyes were covered and water was poured over her to keep her body from overheating. After the old collar was removed and the lioness fitted with a new one, the veterinarian collected blood and tissue samples. Then a lion researcher took a variety of body measurements -- from length of the animal's tale to the size of her paws -- before the vet gave her a drug to reverse the anesthetic. We had hoped to be involved with the collaring of a male lion the next day, but he and his pals were in an area too inaccessible to be safely reached.

I visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's elephant orphanage in Nairobi three times. The 11 a.m. visit is open to anyone, while the 5 p.m. visit is open only to those who sponsor one or more of the orphans and who sign up in advance. It was great fun watching the babies rush to their individual stockades at the end of a day spent in Nairobi National Park. Each baby gets a bottle or two of special milk formula, as well as freshly cut greens before being closed in its individual stockade for the night. 

I spent several minutes with one of my three sponsored orphans (the other two had moved on to the next phase of their preparation for return to the wild). Mbegu is now four years old and described as a 'mini matriarch.' While making our final visit to the orphanage, we ran into Iain Douglas-Hamilton, noted elephant researcher and father of Elephant Watch Camp's manager and wildlife filmmaker Saba Douglas-Hamilton. We had met Iain the previous year while visiting the camp in the Samburu National Preserve.

We visited the Maasai Mara to watch the Great Migration. Some 1.5 million wildebeests and countless zebra make this annual circular migration through Kenya and Tanzania.

I got to meet the student whose high school education I am sponsoring. She 8is Turkana, from one of the many tribes in Kenya. She was very shy, probably due to her developing English skills and the fact that females in her culture are expected to be submissive. She said that chemistry is her favorite subject in school. We learned that we both love Coke (she had had Coke only once before), and both of us have blue as our favorite color. The lunch that was served was entirely foreign to the students, and mine definitely did not like lettuce! Another sponsored student, also Turkana, visited his sponsors at the same time.

I tried some portrait photography with a few of the incredible Samburu people who work at EWC, although I would have liked to photograph more of them. The tracker assigned to my group, a young man named Skanga, was extremely cooperative and seemed to enjoy being photographed. 

This trip was a bonanza for watching lions, including males, young adults and mothers with cubs. We were lucky enough to see a lone male cheetah, as well as two different mothers, each of which had two older cubs in tow.

In all, I shot more than 9,500 images with my two cameras. Of course, thousands got deleted when I got home, but I still have some good images. The wildlife viewing was phenomenal, and my photography has improved considerably since my first trip five years ago. I won't get to visit Kenya again for a couple of years, but I hope my trips to Ethiopia and Botswana will be equally as rewarding..

Sleeping With Lions

I have just returned from a wonderful two-week photo safari in Tanzania.

Here are some impressions from my time in Tanzania. It was a time of both dead silence and many sounds. When there were no animals about, the night was totally silent. Other nights were busy with the sounds of the larger wildlife. Some days my eyes were overwhelmed by the vast numbers of animals (wildebeests and zebras), while others challenged us to find the very elusive leopard.

At night, as I lay in my tent (a large, nice tent with indoor plumbing and electric lights), I listened to the grunting of hippos ashore to feed. I heard the plaintive cries of hyenas, and the roaring of lions. If we ventured out of our tents after dark, we had to be escorted by a spear-wielding Maasai warrior. This was a good precaution, as early one morning a male lion was walking around the tent of one person in our group! Unlike at home, when birds aren't heard chirping and singing until dawn, birds in Tanzania started their morning serenades long before sunrise.

A muddy spotted hyena

The sounds of hundreds of thousands of wildebeests and the shrill cries of tens of thousands of plains zebras filled our days as they milled around waiting for one of their number to start moving as part of their annual migration.

We enjoyed bowls of creamy hot soups made of pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber and other vegetables. We all looked forward to finding out which soup would be part of dinner each night. Fresh bread made from scratch complemented the soups. I loved the sweet, juicy pineapple and delicious slices of mango. Everything was fresh and made from scratch.

The warm smiles and cries of 'jambo' (hello) from lodge staff greeted us throughout the day. Every person I encountered, from the resident chef to our Maasai escorts at night, was friendly and helpful. Our guides/drivers, Angelbert and Tom, took such good care of us. They both have an uncanny ability to spot even the smallest sunbathing lizard on a rock, a colorful small bird on a tree branch, and a camouflaged leopard walking through tall grasses. I started calling Tom 'Gentleman Tom' because he was always there to lend a hand. When I slipped on a very muddy step while exiting our Land Cruiser and twisted my leg, it was Tom who came to my rescue. 

We saw many beautiful birds, an amazing sunrise and sunset,

and so many wildebeests and zebras on their annual migration that the horizon was blackened by their presence. We watched in awe as a mother lion carried her four cubs to a new, hidden location. She picked each one up by the back of the neck and moved it, and then she went back to get the others one at a time. The next morning we laughed as she repeatedly tried to corral her wandering offspring. She would get three of them back into the brush, but as she went after the last one, the other three would emerge to follow her. One little one (we assume it was the same cub) kept wandering off in the opposite direction. Finally she got them all tucked away and settled down to nurse.

Spending 90 minutes with two cheetah brothers as they walked slowly across the grassy plains, taking time for a quick roll in the damp grass, was a real treat, as was photographing them as they seemed to pose in a tree. The day before, a different cheetah chased -- and barely missed -- a gazelle that was on the dinner menu. Unfortunately, slipping on a muddy step while exiting the vehicle and twisting my leg prevented me from standing up on the seat to watch the chase.

Of course, not everything we saw was pleasant to contemplate. We saw a baby zebra with a hind leg it couldn't use. We saw several baby wildebeests that had been separated from their mothers in part of the massive herd. One was running back and forth desperately trying to find her in the huge herd. Another stood alone a good distance from the herd. Lone animals, particularly the young ones, stand no chance of escaping hungry lions, leopards and hyenas. One of our guides noted that only half of all wildebeests born in a given season (most are born within the same month) survive to their first birthday. 

We spent several minutes watching dozens of vultures of various kinds, along with marabou storks, battle with hyenas over the carcass of a wildebeest. The birds won the battle, with the hyenas leaving for a bit, and then returning at a respectable distance. Vultures are not attractive birds by any measure, but the marabou stork gets the prize for ugliest animal in Africa.

Toward the end of the trip, so much rain fell that some of the roads were washed away. We even spotted a catfish on a flooded road!  Our planned visit to a pool that usually was occupied by dozens of hippos was shortened dramatically due to the rains, which had turned the pool into a raging torrent of water, sending the hippos to calmer waters. We even spotted a large catfish on a road that had flooded with overflow from a river some 100 meters away.

Despite all my visits to Africa, the thrill of seeing magnificent elephants, mischievous baboons and vervet monkeys, birds of vibrant colors, graceful giraffes and a variety of antelope and gazelles always calls me back for more. Each day, each sunrise, each sighting is unique.

I haven't uploaded or edited most of my images from this trip yet, but more will be shared soon.

Bird of Many Colors

I am very happy to announce that my photograph of a lilac-breasted roller bird, taken in Botswana, has been chosen by Natural Habitat Adventures as today's Wildlife Photo of the Day!

These birds, common to much of sub-Saharan Africa, are the most beautiful birds I have

ever seen. Most noticeable are their lilac and turquoise colors, although they are adorned with other colors as well.

http://dailywildlifephoto.nathab.com/photos/669-bird-of-many-colors-08-11-2015 

High-resolution prints of this bird, and many other images, are available at http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bird-of-many-colors-ann-sullivan.html?newartwork=true