“Aaaaaaaaaaaack!” Reflexively my jeep-mates lunged for their cameras. Panting from the adrenaline rush, they looked at me bewildered. “It was a mistake! It was a mistake! I didn’t mean to hit the shutter!” I yelped apologetically, feeling like a dope. For a second they stared at me and […]
In March 2015, I walked into the small chic bar in the Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, located deep in the desert of the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, a place so remote you have to fly in to reach it. Sitting on a stool was a man looking rather […]
It started with the death of zebra. From miles away we heard its terrified, high-pitched bark echoing across the Mara. It took us five minutes driving like a bat out of hell to reach it, but by the time we arrived it was laying at the bottom of a […]
He sat in the wheat-colored grass, the remnants of a fallen wildebeest hiding everything but his magnificently maned head and the blood stain goatee on his chin. Undeniably handsome, yet scarred from years of battle, he was Aslan in the flesh, as if plucked from The Chronicles of […]
Today is #WorldLionDay: A salute to lions worldwide and the tireless organizations that seek to end the threat of extinction bearing down on this incredible species. While the world has been inundated with stories about Cecil the lion (and for good reason), our global culture is fickle and […]
I’ve never tried to drag half a dead wildebeest in my mouth but I’m thinking it can’t be easy. It’s not a task I often contemplate mind you, but it came to my attention last year when a determined female from a large pride was doing just that […]
I admit it. When I read the account of Cecil the lion’s untimely and insidious demise, I wanted to find Walt Palmer, and those who enabled him, and scratch their eyes out. I wanted to scream when I read that they had baited him so they could lure […]
Across the dimly lit tent stood Dr. Philip “Flip” Stander, the world’s foremost expert on Namibia’s famed desert-adapted lions, looking every bit the grizzled, stereotypical researcher who’d spent most of his life alone in the field. His hair askew—as if he’d just run his hand through it—sported the […]
Scarface the lion It was he, Scarface the lion (Scar), curled up like a housecat in the grass, his thick dew-covered mane sparkling in the sun. His brothers, Hunter, Sikio, and Morani were nearby; they too were sleeping. The Four Musketeers, known for their prowess and savagery, instead […]
For wildlife in Africa, mock fighting is just part of growing up. Young animals learn the necessary skills that will help them down the line when the confrontation isn’t a game. In both Botswana and Kenya last year, I saw quite a few animals butt heads in the […]
