Jackals are sort of the coyotes of Africa and Asia. I’ve photographed two species in Africa and another in India. This is the black-backed jackal and he was doing his jackal-y thing in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. My three day visit to the Kalahari was made extra special by the fact that I was the only guest at the camp at the time. It was easy for me to get out of the safari vehicle when appropriate to capture eye level shots of all the great wildlife.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second

Red lechwe are an African antelope that prefer to spend the majority of their waking hours in or around water. The top photo is the female of the species and the bottom the male. They were both part of a herd that was dashing across the flooded plain of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Top Photo — Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 220mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second
Bottom Photo — Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 260mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second

This African wild dog was just letting out a bit of a yawn before settling down for the night. After tracking them for quite some time, we finally came upon this pack of wild dogs late afternoon in northern Botswana.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 330mm) ISO 400, f/5 at 1/400th of a second

Just a simple ostrich portrait for a Friday. The facts: The ostrich is the largest bird species on the planet. They can’t fly. The myths: They hide their head in the sand when frightened. This ostrich was doing his best to avoid the flies (obviously not good enough) in the Linyanti Concession of Botswana.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/400th of a second

Here’s another one from Botswana. This time the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and a southern yellow hornbill. I think he/she was trying to wink at me but couldn’t quite get that left eye to close. I was hiding in a blind waiting for a honey badger to make its nightly rounds and having a good time with the close approach of several of the local birds.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/400th of a second

A zebra, sort of hiding in the tall grass of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. It was early in the morning and there was a herd of tsessebe with a few zebra mixed in here and there, no doubt doing their best to stay out of sight of any would be predators.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2000th of a second

This cheetah was just doing what any self-respecting cheetah would do. Marking his territory. He was one of three brothers that I saw over the course of a few days while staying in northern Botswana.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1000th of a second

Just a simple shot of an elephant eating grass. This one was taken in Botswana at the Linyanti Concession near Chobe National Park in the northern part of the country.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/6.3 at 1/500th of a second

This little lion cub was taking a bit of a rest upon the safe confines of Dad’s well-fed torso. This was from my visit to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. I didn’t expect to see as many lions as I did in the Kalahari, but got lucky with a pride that had just finished devouring an oryx kill and then proceeded to make their way over to a water hole where they all had an after dinner drink.
Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 380mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/250th of a second

Sometimes you can get close. This was a one-year old leopard we observed stalking a pangolin for about three hours. I previously posted about the encounter at this link. We were obviously able to get very close, and I used my long lens (and a generous crop) to zoom in on the leopard’s eyes for this tight portrait.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/5 at 1/160th of a second