Lockdown

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 10, 2013225 views7 comments

This is one of the intense sightings we had in the Mara Triangle recently.

It shows the dramatic final moments of a young wildebeest who decided to swim across the river on his own and stumbled into a small pride of lions who were lying in wait just for him. We literally pulled into the sighting, hoping to get some nice photos of the lions in the grass, when this happened - 20 meters from the vehicle. This photo is uncropped. I shot with the 500mm combo here to get closeups of the intense struggle visible on the faces of predator and prey.

The wildebeest put up a brave fight for a good couple of minutes...but alas its fate was sealed.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f8.0 | 1/1250 SS | ISO-1250
uncropped (well, it's at least 99% of the original image)

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on November 10, 2013 at 4:18 PM

Amazing capture. I love the look in the wildebeest's eye. It says it all.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on November 10, 2013 at 5:05 PM

What action! The poor wildebeest is clearly outmatched. Nice triangular composition Morkel, although I think you might trim a little from the left to further concentrate the focus on the protagonists. Excellent framing, especially as you were using a fixed focal length lens. A great wildlife photo!

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on November 11, 2013 at 6:09 AM

Morkel you have captured real fear! It really is a great dramatic shot.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Olsen on November 11, 2013 at 10:01 AM

This really shows how gruesome nature can be! Great photo!

Registered on October 19, 2006, 306 Posts, 1571 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on November 12, 2013 at 4:10 AM

The Life & Death struggle in the Mara, well capture Morkel.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on November 12, 2013 at 8:42 AM

Hey Morkel,

Ouch - natural selection in action! Predation isn't always pretty, but obviously an absolutely critical part of ecosystem functioning. Real good capture of this event. One thing that strikes me about the image - and this is driven by the look on the cat on the wildebeest's back - is how this dramatic act seems just like "business as usual" for the cats.

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on December 14, 2013 at 2:58 PM

Thanks everyone

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments