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WILDLIFE BLOG
Life in the Bush: South Luangwa 20 August – 15 September 2020
It's been a while since I wrote an update from Zambia. Apologies for my silence. In part this is due to being busy with photoshoots (for local companies and NGOs), in part due to a wonderful walking expedition that I joined (follow my Instagram from more on this) and in part due to the pressures that we are all feeling from this very challenging year. Supporting my family and getting through this upside-down year, with all [...]
Life in the Bush: South Luangwa 5 – 19 August 2020
Greetings from Zambia, where the weather gods have certainly decided that winter has come to an end! Temperatures by day are creeping into the high 30s and night-times are warmer, requiring a blanket only in the early hours of the morning. It seems ridiculous to grumble about the weather in a year when the world's status quo has dissolved, but it really feels like we didn't have a winter in Zambia this year and hot season [...]
Wildlife: North Luangwa 22 July – 4 August 2020
Greetings from the Luangwa Valley. As always, this blog comes with my best wishes and the sincere hope that you and your families are well. From here, I watch the world news with my guests in mind as countries open up more, or conversely re-enter lock downs. We think of you often. Apologies for missing my weekly update last week. I was away in the North Luangwa National Park for 10 days with little connection, so [...]
Wildlife: South Luangwa 15 – 21 July 2020
A busy week has allowed for less time in my usual areas of the South Luangwa. I did spent a couple of mornings on safari (sightings to follow at the end of this blog) but before that, I had a number of photoshoot assignments and an interesting trip to the interior of the National Park to explore a lesser-visited wetlands in the headwaters of the Mwamba and Chikaya streams. My visit to Frank's Lakes is best [...]
Wildlife: South Luangwa 8 – 14 July 2020
Incredibly, another week has passed us by and I find myself writing my weekly virtual safari update... As always, this comes to you with my best wishes and hope that you and yours are well physically and mentally during this most challenging time. Zambia is starting to notice increased numbers of people in hospitals, more deceased arriving at medical centres and worrying numbers with breathing and respiratory problems. It has taken a while, but it seems [...]
Wildlife: South Luangwa 1 – 7 July 2020
It's hard to believe that we are now in July. Time is a very odd thing; on the one hand, time has passed slowly and 2020 seems already to have lasted a lifetime, but equally half the year has gone by and I'm not sure where it went! It is strange in the Luangwa as the absence of safari activity makes it appear that we are still "pre-season" whereas we're actually in the peak months now. [...]
Wildlife: South Luangwa 24 – 30 June 2020
We have had an unusual week of warm and cloudy weather, culminating with a short rain shower on the 30th June! Not unprecedented but certainly unusual for this time of the year. Fortunately, it was far too little to do any damage to the roads and it hasn't impacted wildlife movements; the gradual drying of the park continues. I also spent a fair bit of time doing photoshoots this week, some for product websites and also [...]
Life in the Bush: an insight into the work of Conservation South Luangwa
COVID-19 is affecting nearly every part of our planet. Even nature, which cannot contract COVID, is impacted by the loss of livelihoods in wildlife areas and resultant poaching pressure. Conservation South Luangwa holds the line and provides law enforcement support to the Department for National Parks and Wildlife in the Luangwa Valley. Alongside the Zambia Carnivore Programme, they have formed highly trained, skilled and disciplined field teams who protect our iconic species and ensure that Zambians [...]
Wildlife: South Luangwa 17 – 23 June 2020
Another week has gone by with the world learning more and more about COVID-19. One thing that seems sure is that we will be living with it for some time to come. Nations are managing to reduce the infection rate to very low, and keeping it in check, but global eradication is still far from realistic. We all hope for a vaccine soon so that people can protect themselves, and those they come into contact with, [...]
Wildlife: a view into a leopard’s dynasty
She wasn't the first leopard that I saw. That was an old female near the Katete river. But she was certainly the one I saw best, most and in a wonderful way. Alice, as she has been known to guides and visitors to the South Luangwa National Park, was an incredible character, a leopard who defied the textbooks. Unfazed by people, content to be observed, often found hunting by day, she gave me a window into [...]
Wildlife: Crowned Eagles
In September 2018, we started to see crowned eagles around the entrance to the national park on a regular basis. Sightings had always been recorded in SLNP but occasional at best. To some extent, large eagles such as this are always a rarity as they are the very top of the food chain, feeding on large primate prey and reaching a massive height of nearly 100cm from bill to tail tip. So the ecosystem does not [...]
Safari Destinations with Edward Selfe Photo Safaris – Mana Pools
It's no secret that the floodplains of Mana Pools National Park offer some of the most immersive wildlife safari anywhere in Africa. The density of game is incredible - though equal to other amazing areas - but the ability to walk among the big game species is what makes it really special. It's not just that walking is allowed, but that it has been allowed for so long that the game is totally habituated to the [...]
EDWARD SELFE
I organise & run photographic safaris in the finest wildlife areas on Earth.
