On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Kabecoo
With the possible exception of the crocodile, it seemed that every animal showed us some form of family or group structure.
We were five tourists thrown together for 17 days. Two members of the group were a delightful Dutch couple with whom we are still in touch. The value of having young, sharp eyes became evident on Day 2, when one of them spied a set of “Mickey Mouse” ears in the distance.
This was part of a pride of five lions, out hunting springboks in the afternoon. These three siblings watched us approach but didn’t seem bothered by our presence. However, one of the males eventually moved to put himself between us and the matriarch.
This female impala still tolerates nursing her yearling.
There were still a few baby birds around to worry their parents. Often they would cluster in the tracks of the road. Some of the babies were incredibly hard to see if they were nestling in the grasses along the track. This sparfowl seemed a bit anxious at our approach, particularly with a chick more interested in pecking at the roadway.
Ahhh, yes, the beautiful warthog. In the first part of our trip, we only encountered solo warthogs, who would watch us for a few seconds before turning and disappearing into the bush. It took so long for me to react to the guide’s shouted “warthog!” that I only got pictures of their hairy rear ends. Even the label “warthog” was unfamiliar to our Dutch friends, so our guide simply called them “Pumba!” in the universal language of The Lion King.
But by the end of the trip, we encountered warthog families. Most often, the males would face us, while the others would seek refuge in the brush. The babies looked like…baby warthogs. Less hair, no tusks, adorable.
This was one female that stayed around for a bit. Love that hair!
This older male clearly has it, and therefore flaunts it. The hair, the four tusks, the odd facial lumps: can’t help but wonder about the evolutionary path these took, but it made me happy to be around to witness them.
The magic of the zoom lens. The male in the prior photo was so unafraid of us that he began grazing. I was captivated, especially as our earlier experience made me believe that they would all run away before anyone could start singing Hakuna Matata.
It’s hard for me to believe that I’m now eight days into writing these posts without having posted a zebra picture. We saw them singly, in small family groups, in large herds. These were part of an enormous herd we saw on our first day. I have convinced myself that this is a family group, young one in the middle, parent on the left telling us to move along.
Many of Botswana’s adult zebras display a shadow stripe along the side and rump, the slightly lighter stripe between two dark ones.
I had always heard that zebras’ stripes acted as camouflage. This was obviously absurd as a black and white animal would stand out among the yellows, browns and greens of the bush. This belief lasted until one afternoon the guide showed us several zebras a few hundred feet away. I could see NOTHING until one of them moved, and they all came into focus, like one of those 3-D things in the Sunday comics.
For legal reasons I am required to include this shot of six elephants (plus two blurry ones in the background) meandering along the road toward us. In the middle, the youngest one ahead of three juveniles, tired of being the youngest at this point. (There are two other photos of this family in previous posts. What can I say? I loved seeing this bunch.)
raven
Incredible!
Benw
These photos make me happy!
JPL
What an amazing trip and thank you for sharing your pics. Ever since I watched the HBO series The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, I wanted to visit Botswana. The zebras wear their stripes well.
Kevin
Great pictures and excellent point regarding the warthog evolution. It would be interesting to know why they developed such traits.
Kristine
Thank you for the incredible photos. What an experience it must’ve been to see these animals in their own environment.
Betty
What a wonderful adventure. I love the Pumba story. Such great guides.
arrieve
Wonderful pictures. I was lucky enough to visit Botswana in 2012, and still marvel at all of the wonderful animals I got to see up close. So many elephants! I remember considering becoming a vegetarian because they had roasted impala with cranberry sauce at the lodge for dinner one night and I couldn’t bring myself to eat such a beautiful creature.
sab
@arrieve: My mother had an Impala car. I still can’t believe they named that boat of a vehicle after those lovely critters.
zhena gogolia
Zebras are so beautiful. A wonder of nature.
Yutsano
Too late. “Hakuna Matata” already stuck in my head. Love the warthog* pics!
I was also hoping Albatrossity had dropped an ID on the beautiful female grouse looking bird. Maybe when I finish typing my comment?
EDIT: nope…
*I think I now understand the nickname of the A-10 Thunderbolt. It’s not pretty but oh man is it effective!
J R in WV
Philosophical question — is the Warthog the ugliest mammal to ever walk among us? I mean, really !!!
SkyBluePink
Oh, the elephants! And the zebras! And the warthogs! And…
Thank you for sharing these enchanting pics.
ellie
These are great photos! Thanks for posting!
apieceofpeace
What beauties, all of them. And your pictures of them easily bring on smiles and much appreciation.
CindyH
@J R in WV: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me, they are VERY cool. ;)
Kabecoo
@Yutsano: from my notes, it’s a sparfowl. But when I perform the simplest of searches, it appears to be a spurfowl, probably a red billed spurfowl. The difference is likely due to either poor hearing, poor handwriting, or a bit of both.
glad folks enjoy the pics. We sure loved being in a place to take them.
way2blue
Warthogs adorable? Mmmm. Not the first word that comes to mind. I did love how they held their tails straight up in the air when running—silly explanation point to scary looking guys…
BigJimSlade
Of course I had seen zebras in the zoo as a kid, but seeing them in South Africa as an adult was different. My first reaction was, are you kidding me? This is a joke, right??! They look so bizarre – very much WTF! And yet very familiar because we all grow up seeing them in books and zoos and all that. Lol.
Related, I read somewhere that their stripes help confuse some pesky flies. Not sure if that’s still the latest info.