Wildlife Photography Blog

The lovely photograph above grabbed top prize in the Professional Birds Category of the 2011 National Wildlife magazine’s photography competition. Captured by Dutch photographer Hennie van Heerden, the photo shows a Green-backed Heron hunting for fish in a flowing river at Mala Mala Game Reserve, South Africa.

By using a slow shutter speed while keeping the camera steady, Hennie cleverly portrays water flowing over the rocks in soft, beautifully muted colors, while keeping the heron sharp.

Hennie’s wildlife and nature photographs are outstanding — you can view more of her work and read about her rise to prominence as a wildlife photographer on her website, Hennie van Heerden.com

Hennie’s winning image was just one of nearly 27,000 entries in this year’s National Wildlife photography competition that covered the following categories: Connecting People and Nature, Backyard Habitats, Landscapes and Plant Life, Birds, Mammals and Other Wildlife, plus a popular new category, Baby Animals. In addition, there were three levels of photographers: professional, amateur, and youth.

Winning photographs in the various categories can be viewed in the slideshow below:

Thirty-three rhino horns have been found in a container aboard a ship in Hong Kong. The vessel had earlier departed from Cape Town, suggesting the haul was from some of the rhinos killed this year in South Africa.

The discovery of the horns, hidden in a container carrying scrap plastic, is a significant blow to rhino poaching syndicates. With more than 300 of the animals slaughtered in South Africa this year for their horns, it means nearly 10% of poachers’ ill-gotten gains will not reach the market of eager buyers in China and Vietnam.

The rhino horns, together with ivory chopsticks and bracelets found in the container, are estimated to be worth HK$ 17.4 million (about R18.17m or US$2.27m).

Caption: Porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) walking along bank of dry riverbed at dusk, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM; Focal length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/160; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO 400.

It was during an afternoon game drive in Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana’s Tuli Block that I saw my first porcupine in the wild. As Mollman, our safari guide, eased the Toyota down the steep bank into a dry riverbed, he spotted the porcupine emerging from its burrow (below).

Although it was late afternoon with the low sun casting shadows in parts of the riverbed, this sighting was certainly unusual as porcupines are strictly nocturnal and not normally seen during daylight.

The porcupine was not particularly phased by our presence and set off determinedly across the riverbed, its black-and-white quills backlit by the sun’s last rays (right). Once on the other side, it climbed the bank and quickly disappeared from sight in the adjacent bush.

Porcupine quills are popular symbols of the African bush, much-loved by designers for decorating brochures and websites pertaining to African safaris. For me it was exciting seeing the actual carrier of the quills — the real thing as it were.

One of the myths about porcupines is that they shoot their quills when attacked by predators. As with most non-predators, the porcupine’s immediate response when threatened is to flee. However, if cornered it defends itself agressively, initially trying to scare off the attacker by stamping its feet, rattling its quills and grunting.

If the attacker fails to take evasive action quickly enough, the porcupine will rush backwards or sideways at it and jab the needle-sharp quills deeply into the attacker.

For porcupines, sex can be a prickly issue, but they get round this quite successfully and pairs will, in fact, copulate frequently. Like humans, they don’t only mate for breeding.

See safari guide Roddy Smith’s article, Porcupines Must Mate with Care, for more on this intriguing rodent.

Photopeka.com is a recently launched photo blog that showcases a wide variety of photos from around the world.

Founder of the blog, Dustin Hill, clearly puts much time and thought into his selections, as they cover an intriguing range of subjects and locations. This type of selection is obviously subjective and not every shot will appeal to every reader.

However, what’s different and of value to photographers and those learning photography, is that Dustin adds comments and information about where and how the photograph was captured, including camera, lens and exposure details.

I’m obviously also happy that Dustin has included one of my photos from my Wildlife Photography Blog – see Zebra Trio

Caption: Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) takes a break from feeding on its kill, a female impala, to scan for any approaching scavengers, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal length: 200mm; Shutter speed: 1/1250; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 400

The cheetah, once it had eaten its fill, moved away from the kill to rest in the shade of some nearby shrubs. After stretching and yawning, it began carefully grooming and cleaning itself, very like a domestic cat would do.

In the picture (right), it’s using it’s tongue to lick and clean its foreleg. Note the visible, unsheathed claws.

The cheetah’s claws — used mainly for providing traction during its short, blistering runs and not as weapons of attack — can only be partially retracted.

In contrast to this, other cats which either stalk or pounce on their prey, have claws that retract into sheaths when at rest, ensuring the claws remain sharp and ready for use.

We were interested that the first scavenger to arrive and start feeding on the remains of the kill was a tawny eagle (below), beating the resident jackals and hyenas to this free meal.

If you’re on the lookout for an inexpensive gift, we’ve put together a range of 2012 wildlife and nature calendars, in association with Calendars.com, that’s now available for viewing and ordering online.

In addition to African wildlife such as lions, elephants, giraffes and zebras, there are also calendars featuring cute baby animals, garden and backyard birds, colorful butterflies, Polar bears, tigers, wolves and riveting landscapes.

This compelling selection of 2012 calendars, including wall, desktop and mini-calendars, features photography by many renowned wildlife photographers, including those from National Geographic.

See 2012 Wildlife Calendars for more.