Wildlife in Namibia, Erindi Game Reserve

This year I got the chance to visit Erindi Private Game Reserve in Namibia with friends and photographers. It was my first time visiting Africa. I was absolutely amazed by all of the animals here. While these game reserves are absolutely massive they are fenced off and very heavily managed. A lot of the larger animals have radio collars to keep track of them and make sure that they are not targets of poaching. Many of the animals that we photographed are used to human interactions.

There is a lot of important conservation work that goes on at these game reserves. African Wild Dogs are one of the most endangered carnivores in the world. They used to be widespread across Africa but are extinct in 25 countries. They only exist as a fragmented population in a few South African countries. I got the opportunity to photograph three protected dogs at the reserve. We are fortunate that there are places that are working to conserve and reintroduce these amazing animals.

The family of cheetahs that we photographed were particularly used to humans. The mother had been moved several times to try and find a home for her. She was in route to be moved again when they found out that she was pregenant with four cubs. Typically we wouldn’t be allowed to get this close to any of the wild animals on the reserve. But as part of the conservation effort, these cats had a lot of previous human contact and were very docile around humans.

The leopard's name is Honey. She has had a radio collar on her for ten years but our guides think she’s fifteen or sixteen years old. The radio collars help animals living in conservation areas by keeping them from straying into areas where they are in danger or could be poached. Having been in the reserve for so long, she is fairly used to humans and we got to watch her hunt. Seeing her climb up on a tree during sunset for a photo opportunity was a real treat.




#wildlife #Africa #namibia

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CINEMATIC HAPPY BEAUTIFUL PEACEFUL AFRICA WILDLIFE BACKGROUND MUSIC \ [Creative Commons Music]   / creative-commons-music-3769  

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Reawakening' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

Phase Shift' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

Phase Shift' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au