Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness                                                                                                                                                 Pam & Wayne Osborn

Botswana - Mashatu

The Leopard Trio

This young male cub, 15 months old is in prime condition.  He and his sister were just starting to spend time apart from their mother. The dot patterns around the nose can be used to indentify individual leopards.

A Distinguished Lady

Mother was never far away from her two cubs.

Sister Takes the High Ground

Leopards are notoriously hard to find on the ground and even harder once they take to the trees. The three following images are also of this young female.

Blacked-backed Jackal

New-born Impala

Only minutes old, this new-born fawn struggles on wobbly legs and searches for its first drink of milk.

Kudu and Impala

Chacma Baboons

Spotted Hyena

Mashatu's Elephant Hide

The 2013 BBC Wildlife Photograph of the Year was taken from this hide by Greg du Toit. We have seen this and other fabulous elephant images taken from this hide.

 

We came with high expectations but after 5 solid days in the hide, the closest we came to pachyderms  was a few desiccated balls of elephant dung.

 

Rain had fallen and the elephants decamped to greener pastures. That's wildlife photography for you. We polished up our skills instead on terrapin photography. Great subjects as they don't move too fast.

 

We will be back!

Terrapin Happy Snaps

Red-billed Quelea

The males have a black face.

Wood Sandpiper in the Rain

Dried elephant dung in the background.

 

African Mourning Dove (left)

Cape Turtle Dove (right)

 

Lesser Masked Weaver

Female above relaxing. Male below (black face) hard at work building the entrance to the nest.

 

The Elephants Return to Mashatu

On our last day mind you.

 

Black Storks at Sunset