WILD KENYA SAFARIS - Kenya Safaris, Diani Beach Safaris, Mombasa Safaris and more

A Cheetah's sense of smell is key for communication. Masai Mara Kenya Combined with the other two senses that a cheetah relies on for its daily savanna living, this cats sensitive nose, is equally as important as sight and hearing. A cheetah's sense of smell is also crucial when it comes to hunting, as it is now believed that this big cat, may possibly be able to identify and follow herds of its favorite prey by smelling them from over 5 km away. When it comes to finding out about the other cheetahs in the surrounding area, their acute sense of smell acts as a key communication tool. A cheetah can easily find out about the others in an area by smelling the feces, urine and scuffing from the scent glands that have been left behind. Cheetah's whether they are transient or resident to an area, all seem to leave their scented communication on the same olfactory stations such as trees, grass patches, stones and termite mounds. These scent stations seemingly act like ...

Close up look of a wild African elephant's eye The largest land mammal on earth, the elephant, actually has a relatively moderate visual capability compared to other herbivorous animals. Despite this nearsightedness, it has nevertheless been able to survive in the wild thanks to its excellent hearing and acute sense of smell that adequately compensates for their limited range of sight.   Elephants that are found in the wild have been noticed to grow some extremely long upper eyelashes. This quite likely comes in handy to prevent excessive dust, dirt and numerous insects from continuously irritating the eyes, which is not uncommon in the harsh savanna environment. Their nictitating membrane helps to clean and lubricate their eyes. These large mammals also have limited, but advantageous peripheral vision simply because each eye is located on the side of their head, which naturally gives them a wider uniocular angle. However, due to the unique location of both eyes on...

Kenya's coral reefs dying and devoid of fish life As an underwater photographer, author, filmmaker and marine enthusiast for over 30 years it saddens me to make such a horrifying but necessarily blunt conclusion that our fringing coral reef that runs along the Kenyan coast, is practically dead and almost naturally beyond biological recovery.  Having dived the waters from Lamu Kenya all the way down to Mnemba Island in Tanzania, and regularly comparing these various snorkeling and diving spots over a period of time, it has not come as a surprise to see that our reef biodiversity has disappeared at an alarming rate.  The protected marine parks have only managed to retain about 40% of their marine life in the last ten years, while the reserves and all other marine water bodies that are falling outside the marine parks protection have lost over 95% of the marine life they contained ten years ago. To directly put the latter into real life perspective, if your entir...

Lioness and her cubs tearing into an elephant's flesh at Tsavo National Park Kenya A pride of lions a couple of days before this picture was taken, brought down an adolescent elephant in what must have been an epic and challenging hunt. After being successful and having their fill, the expert elephant hunters moved on to another area of the park, leaving a quarter of the elephant carcass for the rest of the sanctuary's wildlife to partake in a share of the feast. Two Ngutuni lionesses were one of the many predators who took advantage of the dead elephant. With their cubs ranging from two months to one year of age, this young family wasted no time in having their fill every night over a period of three days.  Having taken numerous photographs of the feeding, i particularly like this shot because of the teamwork and lessons that are being learnt by the young cubs as they attempt to tug away at the elastic and tough elephant hide, literally biting off more than th...

Breeding pair of Plains Zebra One of the most noticeable of all mammalian species during an East African Safari is the Plains or Common Zebra. For zebra stallions to create their little families known as Harems, they are reputed to become quite competitive and aggressive. Bachelor stallions can be seen fiercely kicking, biting, pushing and chasing other males when it comes choosing and gathering their mares who have reached reproductive maturity at about three to four years of age. Once a stallion has gathered a number of his mares and his harem has been formed, the family will generally remain together unchallenged by other stallions for a prolonged period of time.  After mating, the mares will gestate for about 12 months and deliver a single fawn who will be strong enough to walk and keep up with the harem within an hour of being born. Did you know that Zebra fathers are said to defend their sexually mature daughters by fighting off bachelor stallions until they...

Unique photo composition of a White Rhino up close Putting conventional composition tips and techniques aside, i try to make things a little interesting more often than not, by forgetting all about the technical photo rules on attaining the ideal wildlife shot. I find it more interesting and fun to set my own goals by simply going with the flow of things. As a wildlife photographer, you are already quite aware that nothing is constant in nature, so why bound yourself with technicalities.  Although having a wealth of technical knowledge is essentially beneficial, it is also responsible for a lot of images today resembling everyone else's.  So with a lot of patience, luck and imagination, let nature position the ideal shot, and all you need to do is click what you like. Nature is photogenic and these results will impress you. 

A baboon takes a short power nap in Tsavo East National Park Kenya From cliffs to trees and rocky outcrops, baboons are fairly adaptable when it comes to finding a comfortable spot to sleep in. Being generally light sleepers, they are agile enough to sleep on any odd shaped tree branches, and it is here, that they enjoy some short five minute power naps during the day within the sanctity of their ever watchful troop.  At sunset, they retire to their regular and much safer sleeping sites where they tuck in for the night. These safe sleeping sites are usually found along the walls of cliffs or at the top of tree canopies where the troop feels safer from predators such as lions and leopards.  Most baboons will sleep lightly through the night in an upright sitting position, as it seemingly keeps them alert and prepared to spring into action if needed to either raise an alarm, run away or to protect their babies and defend themselves.