[Leica] Rare Sightings

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

Cheeta and I both loved the wild dogs!

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/

YNWA









On Mar 29, 2014, at 7:02 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:

> We saw some rare sightings in Ndutu - to the ones under can be added
> a rare White-headed Vulture, but I was not in the vehicle that saw the
> bird. The first was the Serval, a small cat, not a rare animal but
> difficult to see, with a quite beautiful coat. This one kept running
> away, so we got no shots of it particularly close. This is probably a
> 15% crop of a D4 frame:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20120107_0231.jpg.html
> 
> The Ratel, or Honey Badger is again not a rare animal, but this was
> the first trip on which  I saw one. They are closer related to weasels
> than badgers, and like other members of that family have a reputation
> of being totally tough and fearless, and of never letting go of
> anything they get between their jaws. One luckily came fairly close
> and kept a bit still for us to get some shots off:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3257.jpg.html
> 
> The high point of the trip for me, at least, was the tracking down of
> probably (not sure, though) the only pack of African Wild Dogs in the
> Serengeti ecosystem - I know for certain that there are none in Masai
> Mara. Distemper had practically wiped out all the dogs a few decades
> ago from this whole area, and it was really amazing to see them making
> a comeback. There was a reported sighting one day, and both our
> drivers joined up with another four to form a search party, and after
> four to five hours of searching they were finally able to track the
> pack down. For my driver, Felix, this was only the third time in 15
> years of being a driver/guide in this area that he had seen the dogs.
> I had never ever seen them before, and it was really wonderful to do
> so. They were much better looking than I thought they would be -
> actually they looked like Alsatians with big round ears. Anyway, after
> news of our sighting broke, many vehicles went in search of the pack,
> but they had disappeared, and till we left, nobody had seen them
> again.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3426.jpg.html
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3300.jpg.html
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3617.jpg.html
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/EAfrica/2014/Ndutu_20140312_3325.jpg.html
> 
> Finally, here is a panorama of the bunch we saw, all 14 of them
> snoozing and resting, taken a few minutes after Alastair's Panorama,
> after one or two stragglers had also come and settled down:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Panoramas/EA2013/Ndutu_20140312_3713.jpg.html
> 
> Please see LARGE, especially the panorama
> 
> Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome
> 
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
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