A ‘little’ hippo gets up after a nap on the beach with it’s family. These hippos are used to people driving by in boats and not being hunted and therefore, it was a rare opportunity to see them out on land during the day.
Category: Uganda
Within a few minutes of starting a morning game drive, I came across these two lions as they made their way out of the forest in searched of some breakfast. Lion, leopard and hyena numbers within Queen Elizabeth National Park have drastically declined in recent years due to suspected poisoning and poaching by local herdsmen, whose cattle are periodically killed by the carnivores. Efforts are underway to reduce the losses of cattle by these animals and to reduce the amount of poaching that occurs within and adjacent to the park. Decreasing populations of lions is not unique to QENP, as the species is now considered threatened throughout the continent.
This prehistoric looking hornbill slowly flew across the sky in Murchison Falls National Park.
Two baby elephants, no more than a few months old, get in a little cuddle time under the watchful eyes of their mothers.
After a strong downpour, a bushbuck gets his coat back in order with a bit of grooming.
On a few occasions during this trip I noticed women herding cattle, which is almost exclusively a job assigned to boys and young men throughout East Africa. My hunch is that this is a product of the still tremendously high prevalence of HIV/AIDS leading to changes in family roles depending on who in the family survives.
While I enjoyed a four course dinner on the patio of Mweya Safari Lodge, this gecko feasted on a one course meal of lake flies. The flies were so numerous that in some spots, not a single portion of the walls could be seen. Thankfully, they don’t bite and aren’t strong fliers so all in all I would take these any day over mosquitoes or tsetse flies.
After raiding a termite mound and not doing a good job of hiding the evidence, a dwarf mongoose scans for any predators before making a getaway.
A man walks his bicycle loaded up with carefully stacked sugar cane stalks back to his village.
Just outside Lake Mburu National Park, a flock of cattle egrets roost in one of the few remaining trees not cut down for firewood.
Under threatening skies, a Ugandan kob looks up from grazing on a windy day near Pelican Point in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Kob number in the thousands in QENP and are the main prey species for lions and leopards
I have done the boat trip up to Murchison Falls several times and each time there is something new. From nesting bee eaters to a crocodile feasting on a floating hippo carcass (photos to come!) the trip up the Nile is spectacular. This year the water level was extremely high which limited the ability of wading birds to find suitable habitat to fish. To compensate this little egret perched on an almost completely submerged boulder adjacent to some turbulent water. With the bird and foreground lit up by the late afternoon sun and the background shaded by one of the adjacent cliffs the bird really stands out in this photo.
Owen Slater Photography 