Following A Lion Hunt - 09:09 pm

09 Mar 2010

Early this morning, whilst making our morning coffee we heard the distinct noise of distant lion (Panthera leo) calls.  They appeared to be coming from the western side of Third Bridge, over on Mboma island.  There have been huge numbers of buffalo (Syncerus caffer) tracks seen in this area so we decided to spend the day trawling for signs of activity.

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We headed out to find the huge herd of buffalo that are currently grazing this area in the hope that where you find prey species you will find predators.  After an hour of searching we had started to get a little despondent at the lack of buffalo activity.  Then, much to our surprise we rounded a corner right into a pair of sleeping male Lions

We didn’t recognise these males but they looked like they were quite young and had probably been kicked out of their pride very recently.  We stayed close to them as they snoozed their way through the midday heat, spending many hot hours staring at the trees waiting for some action to happen.

As the afternoon wore on we started to pick up the sound of buffalo in the distance.  As the noise of their calling got louder the Lions suddenly rose and started to stalk off into the mopane....This had real potential to get interesting!

The buffalo were still a way off so we decided to get ahead of the Lions and try to anticipate their movements.  The dense mopane in the area had really muffled the buffalo calls and we were surprised to find them only a few hundred meters away.

We sat with baited breath waiting for a site of the stalking lions.  They appeared on our left, only about twenty meters away from the resting herd.  As they slowly stalked closer and closer it become very apparent that they were masters of maneuvering between cover, always taking great care to be out of the line of site of the buffalo.

As the distance between predator and prey closed the tension mounted.  I was convinced that the lions were going to make their move at any minute but the buffalo must have sensed their presence and suddenly started to amble off out of the Mopane and onto the nearby floodplain.  The lions did not give chase and seemed fairly unbothered by the outcome...This was going to turn out to be be a real waiting game.

We stuck with the lions through the mopane and noticed that they were showing great interest in one of the trees that the buffalo had been sat under.  As we got closer we could see them licking the ground and it became clear that one of the buffalo cows had quietly given birth whilst we were watching them and the lions were eating the afterbirth.

The presence of a newborn calf among the herd would surely excite the lions so we decided to get out into the open and try to stick with the buffalo as that is where the action would happen.  However, en-route the filming truck started to make some very strange, hot smells.  This was not Brads dinner reoccurring but was the car overheating.  After poking around under the bonnet we found the problem.  A piece of mopane had completely severed the pipe carrying water from the bottom of the radiator so we had lost all our coolant.  30mins of bush mechanic magic and Brad had managed to fix it with a couple of pipe clamps and a piece of hosing we found lying around in the back of the truck.  5 litres of water later we had managed to refill the radiator and were back on our way to the buffalo.

The buffalo had moved out onto the open plain so we set ourselves up towards the back of the herd and waited for the action to happen.

As the buffalo moved over the plain it quickly became apparent that the lions were nowhere to be seen.  They had obviously either lost interest or had found another prey species to target whilst moving through the dense mopane.

People often perceive lions as being the “king of the jungle” or the “ultimate predator” the fact of the matter is that very few lion hunts actually end up in a kill.  Although frustrating, today really demonstrated this fact to me as we saw the lions within a few meters of their perfect prey species and they made no attempt to make a kill.  After a long uneventful day the only thing left to do was kick back and watch the beautiful African sunset

- Chris Harries

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A Welcome Return To Moremi - 10:05 pm

08 Mar 2010

I’ve been on leave and I’m always excited to return to Moremi.
There was plenty of rain in my absence and there is now water everywhere, but the season has started to change and the once lush green landscape is starting to turn brown.





It was awesome to spend my first morning out with a herd of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Buffalo were a rare sighting in January and it is great to see them returning to the Xakanaxa area of Moremi. It was a large buffalo herd of about 300 with many young calves.
As the buffalo herd moved towards a pan to drink and wallow, a pair of blacksmith lapwings (Vanellus armatus) prepared to defend their nest.






The fearless lapwings stood their ground and when a buffalo approached too close they would squawk with outstretched wings, causing the buffalo to spook and immediately back off. The lapwings were very attentive and only relaxed once the buffalo herd had moved on.


- Jason Loughran

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Rain Of Fire In Botswana - 09:42 am

08 Mar 2010

We were in Maun over the weekend to pick up supplies for the coming weeks.  Driving in late yesterday afternoon we were witness to the most spectacular sunset.  The Earth-Touch marine crew were recently raving about the spectacular sunrises in Pomene, Mozambique but I really feel that Botswana is the place to be if you want a fiery, atmospheric sunrise or sunset.

Just before the sun reached the tree line it started to light up the rain falling from a nearby storm cloud, really giving the impression of liquid fire being poured from the heavens

- Chris H

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Sharing An African Sunset With Impala - 08:00 pm

03 Mar 2010

This evening was a real eye opener for me.  After spending a few weeks immersed in this environment you can quickly become complacent about certain things and Impala (Aepyceros melampus) are one of them.  You see these animals just about everywhere so within a few days you start to almost disregard them. And yet impalas are actually incredibly beautiful animals with very definite, dainty personalities. 

The incredible sunset we witnessed this evening really helped to emphasise the intrinsic character of these impala, especially the calves, who seem to form very specific bonds.

The combination of deep shadow and intense highlights meant that getting the desired photographic result from the scene was tricky, but I found that by stopping down by about 4 f-stops I managed to really get some beautiful results.

As the evening drew on the quality of the light was constantly changing leading to some beautiful light reflecting of the pools of water that litter the ground.

As the herd moved off into the distance we sat and watched the sun on its daily voyage across the horizon.

- Chris Harries

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The Worlds Worst T-Shirt Tan - 09:24 am

03 Mar 2010

Seeing as I have been posting here for the past few weeks I though it was probably about time to introduce myself and my quite appalling t-shirt tan.  My pasty english skin is not ideally suited to life in Botswana so I have to be careful to stay covered up as much as possible.  The result of this can be quite devastating as I’m sure you can see below.  The picture was taken (much to Brads amusement) whilst cleaning off after a particularly muddy incident involving our filming truck and a big, deep, sticky, wet river crossing where we managed to get stuck badly...Life here is far removed from my former life in Manchester UK...but is definitely more fun!

- Chris Harries

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Shooting High Dynamic Range Hippos - 02:35 pm

02 Mar 2010

Many of the images I have posted here lately have used a relatively new photographic technique known as High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography.  This technique produces some very interesting results and I thought I would share some tips and tricks with you using some of the photos of Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) that I took today.

If you want to learn how to shoot and process HDRs there are many places online that you can go and find them.  I would however recommend the two episodes of Pixel Perfect (an awesome video tutorial podcast created by Revision3) that I have embedded below.

Once you are familiar with this technique you should immediately see that the major drawback is that you need a completely static scene (ie no with no movement) to produce a quality result.  I have been playing around with the software and have found a way to produce some very interesting HDR results from a single RAW photograph.

Most modern digital cameras should give you the option to shoot in RAW mode.  This format records only the pixel brightness values from the sensor of the camera.  It does not apply the normal adjustment (ie tone curves, colour saturation etc) that are added to the image when you should in JPEG mode.  This means that you have to make these adjustments to your images manually in post but it also gives you an incredible amount of latitude to play with.  You can follow the instructions given in the video tutorials above but instead of having to go out a sequence of images you can take a single RAW image and export 5 copies of it each with a different exposue value.  I use Adobe Lightroom to process my images and have found the following exposure settings work the best.

If you are using an image with an exposure compensation of 0 then you will to export copies of the image with the following values.

-2, -1, 0, +1, +2

You can then load these images into your HDR processing software and follow the steps outlined in the video tutorials above.  If you have a play with this and would like to send your images into us please with Chris Harries HDR in the subject of your email.

P.S.  If you use a Mac there is a brand new FREE piece of software that makes processing HDR photos really easy.  see Ohanaware

Happy snapping!

- Chris Harries

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Back In The Okavango Delta - 04:26 pm

01 Mar 2010

We have left Savute and are now back in the Okavango Delta.  It is a real change of scenery to the open marsh of Savute with thick, dense foliage and a serious amount of water on the ground everywhere!

Our main aim is to hunt down our regular pride of Lions (Panthera leo).  We are unsure as to what the Xakanaxa pride has been up to in our absence as the thick, dense foliage present at this time of year has meant that the resident lodge guides have really battled to find them.  As soon as the film camp was sorted and all our luggage unpacked we headed straight off to see if we could locate the Lions.  However, things did not start off quite as we planned as within minutes of leaving camp we were stuck in the boggy ground.  Very stuck!!

Half an hour later, with logs piled underneath the sunken wheel and a serious amount of high lift jack work, Brad calmly reversed the vehicle out of the hole and we cautiously navigated our way off.  If there was one lesson I learned from this it was to not panic and to keep thinking rationally.  Brad goes through this sort of thing on a daily basis and it is just part of his job (in a strange way he almost seems to enjoy the process of getting out of a sticky situation like this).  Anyway, once back on track we started scouring the bush for the elusive Xakanaxa pride of Lions.  After an hour or so we got a call on the radio from some of the guides at Camp Moremi (the Desert and Delta lodge close to our film camp).  Apparently they had seen two lionesses that were eating from a fresh Giraffe (Girrafa camelopardalis) kill quite close by.  Could these be our Lions?  Could there have been a major upset in the Xakanaxa pride structure in our absence?

As we closed in on the apparent location of the kill it became obvious that we were in the right place.  At least 15 hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) could be seen resting high in the trees around one small clump of dense bush.  This is a major indication of their being a kill close by and we quickly located the lionesses.

They were tucked away, fairly deep into the bush.  Initially we were sure that these were two of the adult Xakanaxa lionesses but on closer inspection we came to the conclusion that they were not as they were slightly larger.  They were obviously very full after gorging themselves on the juvenile Giraffe they had killed but they definitely looked like they could also be quite heavily pregnant. They appeared to have a very close bond and were very amicable to each other, even when feeding.

As the afternoon wore on their was a stunning, dappled golden light filtering down through the foliage making for some very intricate imagery.  It is unfortunate that we are still unsure of the location of the Xakanaxa pride but will be focusing on catching up with them over the next few days.

We are fighting the elements a little here in Moremi and the water appears to be rising fast.  I know there is a huge debate going on at the moment regarding climate change and global warning but seeing the changes that have happened here in Botswana this year (such as the Savute marsh being flooded and the incredible amount of water on the ground here in Moremi) you can’t help wonder if there are some serious changes to the climate happening right under our noses and at quite an incredible speed.

- Chris Harries

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Carmine Bee-eaters - 02:46 pm

26 Feb 2010

For me, one of the most fantastic experiences to be had in Savute is with a small crimson bird.  The Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides).  These medium sized insectivores can be seen in quite large numbers on the marsh where the environment is perfect for them to perch up high, spotting insects with their incredibly sharp vision and swooping down to either pick them out of the grass or pluck them from the air

Another strategy employed by these bee-eaters is to follow almost anything that is traveling through the long grass, picking off any insects that are flushed out of the grass.  We regularly see them following Elephants (Loxodonta africana), Ostriches (Struthio camelus), and Kori bustards (Ardeotis kori) but they are also very fond of following our vehicle.  This makes for some quite extraordinary photographic opportunities as they will fly right next to the filming truck, matching its speed so they appear stationary in the air before suddenly swooping off to the side or even right in front of the vehicle to pick off any tasty morsels.

Their aerial agility really is quite incredible, they will hover, swoop and dive and often appear in quite substantial numbers which leads to a lot of squabbling whilst on the wing.

After spending quite a few hours surrounded by this cacophony of carmine there is one thing that is really puzzling me. 

Carmine Bee-eaters can pick up the tiniest movement when traveling at great speed, react to it and successfully pluck an insect out of the air at the last moment.  The only way I think they can achieve this is if they perceive time in a completely different way to us humans.  As a species we need a minimum of 25 still images to be displayed to us a second for us to see smooth motion (ie 25 frames a second, as in the Earth-Touch podcasts).  I am sure these birds must process visual information at a much faster rate.  The newest generation of superslow motion HD video cameras (such as the Phantom HD) film at about 2000 frames a second, I wonder if this is how these birds perceive the world..Effectively living life in super slow motion??  Answers on a postcard!?

- Chris Harries

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Savute Rocks - 08:20 pm

23 Feb 2010

It’s official...The Savute channel has finally hit the marsh here after a 30 year absence! This region has been devoid of water for the past 3 decades so the flowing of the Savute channel is quite a historical moment.  As such, I feel it deserves a little bit of background information.

Approximately 130,000 years ago this whole region of Botswana was completely submerged underwater.  The Makgadikgadi mega-lakes immersed a vast area stretching from what is now the Okavango delta, 400km west to the far side of the Makgadikgadi salt pans.  It is thought that the unique environments of the Okavango delta, The Savute marsh system, the Kalahari desert and the Makgadikgadi salt pans all owe their existence to this once great lake.  On the image below you can clearly see the Okavango delta at the top left and the Makgadikgadi salt pans at the bottom right.  As an idea of scale the Okavango delta stretches for just over 300km!

Image courtesy of NASA visible earth

The topography of the land here at Savute initially looks like fairly normal Botswanan bush.  However, on closer inspection you can see some strange features such as a huge sand ridge stretching around the reserve and strange rocky outcrops dotted in a fairly regular north-easterly direction.  The sand ridge is the former shore of the lake and the outcrops are former islands in the Makgadikgadi mega-lakes, their east sides are steep rock faces whereas the western side slopes gently towards the ground.  The reason for this difference in morphology is due to the waves that once crashed against their eastern sides, smashing the rocks and speeding up the erosion process (see map below for an example)

View Larger Map

We decided to head over to one of these unique outcrops (known locally as Koppies) to see if there was anything interesting to be found.  Below is the view from the top of one of these micro-mountains.  You really get an idea of how flat the landscape is and how unsual it is to have an elevated view of this place.

The rocks that cover the steep easterly side of the koppies are clearly formed by underwater volcanic activity and are covered in small ridges which appear to have a regularly spaced geometric pattern.  Initially I thought that these patterns could have been caused by either waves or tidal action on the rocks over geological time but after finding another set of large stones covered in tightly packed concentric rings I figured that they are more likely to do with the highly ferrous structure of the rocks causing them to align with magnetic fields when they were formed.

Besides the historical weathering of these koppies due to the ancestral super-lake there is also strong evidence of current day erosion due to water.  They actually appear to be hollow and probably have a cave system within where water either drains in from the top or bubbles up from the water table.  The cave you see below was easily big enough to crawl into but the glass-like smoothness of the rock at the entrance indicated that their was probably something living in the cave that regularly used the entrance….Our money is on a big snake.

Inspection of another nearby cave showed more evidence of constant water.  The water seems to be very localised (as the moss growing below indicates).  A few pioneer species of tree (most notably the strangler fig (ficus thonningii))
have managed to colonise this nutrient poor environment by weaving their tendril like roots into the rock.

Another interesting find was the partially decomposed skeleton of an owl (most likely a barn owl (Tyto alba) which had obviously fallen from its nest.  The fact that the body had not been eaten by scavengers is probably an indication of the remoteness of these hills.  We saw very little wildlife while here but interestingly there was sign of recent elephant activity...even at the top.  How they manage to scale these mini mountains is a real mystery to me but they are obviously more agile than I thought!

- Chris Harries

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The Elephants Of Savute - 11:31 am

22 Feb 2010

Water seems to be a constant theme for us here in Savuti at the moment.  As well as the river flowing for the first time in 30 years the rainy season is still upon us and the morning skies are heavy with rain clouds.

The heavy rains from these clouds have caused an explosion of plant growth on the Savute marsh and as such, elephant (Loxodonta africana) can be found gently cruising through this area, specifically looking for the flowering plants and the nutrition found in their roots

We spent several hours with the Bull elephant you see above and he was incredibly relaxed in our presence which allowed us to get exceedingly close.

At the start of the drought here in Savute the migration routes for the elephants were broken so the Botswanan government decided to start pumping artificial water holes.  The pressure of finding enough water caused the breeding herds to move out of the area but there was a core group of about 60 bulls that stayed.  The close proximity to the lodges of the new artificial water holes meant that the bulls had to become accustomed to being close to man.  The long lifespan of Elephants has meant that this learned behaviour is now firmly entrenched in these elephants psyche meaning that they are now some of the most relaxed elephants to be found in all of Africa.

Another interesting factoid about Botswanan elephants is their tusks.  The grazing here is actually of quite a low quality which means that the Elephant have to supplement their normal grazing intake with a high volume of bark which they scrape of the trees with their tusks.  This behaviour combined with the low quality of their diet means their tusks are considerably smaller, less dense and more brittle than Elephants from other regions of Africa. This is demonstrated in the photo below where you can clearly see that the tip of the tusk has broken off.

As he steadily grazed his way across the marsh we followed and watched him as he ripped plant matter from the ground, cleaning the roots by wiping it across the rough skin on his face. 

It was incredible to spend so much time this close with our planets largest terrestrial animal.  Although incredibly powerful it was clear to me that these are intelligent, sentient and incredibly gentle animals.

- Chris Harries

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