The wildlife we cherish at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were threatened by radical Constitutionalists who wish to dissolve all public lands. Sympathizers closer to home are revving up the fight for the hearts and souls of Grant County citizens.

The Bundy group failed to break apart the refuge, but the danger is not past. The day their leaders were arrested, they were in route to Grant County to plant their ideas in fertile ground. A community meeting proceeded without them, and I listened to their testimonies throughout the evening.

This  community group, filled with conviction, spoke of love, of freedom, of coming together, of fears about losing their rights.  They don’t seem to believe or to understand that those who oppose their agenda hold those same values. So why the great divide?

Well, for one thing, they are vested in demonizing all federal authority and anyone who doesn’t believe in their ideology. Meanwhile, in describing the occupation of the refuge, speakers described all the love there, what a wonderful place of freedom and peace they experienced there. Did they ever connect that, with a threat of violence, they stole that treasured place from others who make the pilgrimage  there year after year to experience the same serenity?  They displaced some wonderful, caring, hardworking staff and thousands of visitors who seek the peace of the refuge. They, in fact, made tyranny their own method of controlling others – just as they accuse the federal government to be tyrannous.

They don’t have to describe how Malheur Refuge can invoke feelings of fellowship and serenity. People who belong their already know its power.  Occupiers stole it from us. The armed occupiers held onto their Utopian encampment at the cost of the rightful occupiers whose productive lives had been dismissed. I did not hear one word of care or concern about God’s creation at Malheur – the wildlife dependent on caretakers of the refuge and that enrich the lives of thousands of people throughout the seasons.

The John Day community meeting speakers were self-righteous. They were not able to respect those who disagreed with them. They mock those who do not think like them. I’ve never before heard a room full of people who were so focused on blaming the government for their angst about how things are going in their world. As a group, they had zero positivism.  No wonder they used the word “oppression” so often. I heard no imagination. I heard no creativity, I heard no inspiration. There was no light. There was endless foreboding.

Healthy attitudes give traction to people, allowing them to move ahead, resolve differences, succeed in solving problems. January 26, 2016 was an evening of extreme negativity and sad, sick mindsets. How do you reach out to such people rooted in such darkness?

As lovers of wildlife and of our community, we felt a duty to attend meetings.  And we will continue to support those in our community who bring messages of positive action for safe, productive lives. 

 

“Did you see the big five?”

Conversations about African wildlife often begin with the question, “Did you see “the big five?” We fear that an exaggerated focus on them has been driven by local Chamber of Commerce leaders. “The Big Five” label – borrowed from safari hunting tours, is a marketing tool used to balloon the number of tourists drawn to Africa’s nature reserves. We wonder if many people are aware of the unfathomable diversity of animals associated with lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes.

Yes, we experienced all those wonderful mammals, and a whole lot more that deserved our focus. How could we ignore that sudden movement in the shadow of that hippo?

We couldn’t, so we photographed the croc, too.

That bird of prey was shadowing a movement in the dunes of the Kalahari. “Oh my gosh!” It was a cape cobra!

 

We photographed them together hunting, perhaps for gerbils grazing the sparse vegetation. There are hundreds of bird species, reptiles, amphibians and dozens of many other mammals large and small.

In the previous two blogs about photographing wildlife in Africa, we focused on the lions found in Kruger National Park (along South Africa’s eastern border) and Kagalagadi Transfrontier Park in the northwest (sharing a border with Botswana). Dramatic as that king of beasts can be, the sheer numbers of other species experienced in those two locations is positively numbing. So again, from Kruger and Kagalagadi, we are posting here a sampling of the diverse creatures of Southern Africa. In the coming weeks, we will launch a new gallery representing a broad selection of our best Africa images.

Enjoy this preview and stay tuned. We will have African species you aren’t likely to find in a digital library anywhere else. I can’t imagine that there are many photographers or wildlife viewing enthusiasts who have been as driven as we were to record the image of everything we saw. Reliving that two month journey through our photos has been enough to inspire us to return to Africa and do it all again – even if in a limited fashion. We’ve  got to keep dreaming!

More Species from Kruger National Park

More Wildlife Species Found in Kagalagadi

 

Lions – interesting in Kruger, prettier in Kagalagadi.

If you are interested in photographing wildlife in Africa, lions will be a highly prized subject to have in your viewfinder. Even if you are more broadly interested in wildlife than the “big five,” the lion, at the top of the food chain, cannot be ignored and it is thrilling to the core when you are in close proximity to the king of beasts. That said, lions as photo subjects vary greatly between those of the open dunes of Kagalagadi in the Kalahari Desert and those in the thorny bushveld of Kruger National Park. There are pluses for both localities and downsides too.

Kruger National Park lions are more numerous and see-able. One serious drawback is the condition of many Kruger cats. The thorny brush and predator competition, due in part to a higher density of animals, leave many lions with scars and battle wounds.  In general, it seemed that life was a bit rougher for wildlife in Kruger.

 

If you take another good look at the last lion photo, you can see that this is one very used up old guy, maybe old great-grandpa. Nearly every televised educational nature documentary about lions we’ve seen has shown footage of what happens when the king of a lion pride is challenged and overcome by a younger, stronger male. The displaced old man is driven out from the pride, if not killed, and even the cub offspring of that old lion are killed by the new king. Photographing this very old lion among the younger male and females at the buffalo kill really left us scratching our heads. What is going on here? He obviously laid among the others, gorged and in a state of sleepy bliss. We sure would like to know how this scene fits into everything we previously believed about lion pride behaviors. Not all lions in Kruger were so rough looking as those at the buffalo kill. The following lion was a beautiful animal.

 

Kalagagadi Transfrontier Park (accessed at the northwest border of South Africa with Botswana) is a part of (and wide open to) the Kalahari Desert. Animals are widespread and free to roam beyond human approach. The ancient dry river bottoms contain watering holes that draw all varieties of prey and predators of the desert. Uniquely adapted birds, small mammals, reptiles and several antelopes – gemsbok, blue wildebeests, and springbok, come to quench their thirst. Wildcats roam the Kalahari for prey, so when the lions arrive at the watering holes photography and wildlife viewing ratchets up like nowhere else. Those same sandy old river beds are the predominant paths of travel for humans, who are pretty much ignored provided they remain safe within their vehicles. (Anyone who violates this precaution and ventures out in view of lions is beyond foolish.) There is unparalleled opportunity to photograph lion–prey interactions at watering holes in Kagalagadi. The beauty of the Kalahari lions that frequent them is evident in these photos.