Love you Mum

This is really special Ken. I've never seen this behaviour either. Just beautiful.

Hi Ken,

Lewa Downs is one of my favorite places on the planet and the first stop we made outside of Nairobi on our first and second visits to Kenya. Created through the efforts of Anna Merz and the Craig family as a sanctuary for Rhinos, It is a model of community development as a way to protect the environment in general and wildlife specifically through conservation. Anna was to Rhinos what Joy Adamson was to lions, Diane Fossey was to Gorillas, and Jane Goodall was to Chimpanzees. I consider the fencing as keeping Poachers out. There are monitored corridors that allow the free movement  of animals in and out of the conservancy.

Now I'll have to pull  Anna's "Rhino, At the brink of extinction" from the bookshelf to reread. Thanks for sharing this image and bringing back some great memories.

Super cute Ken!  I like the vertical comp here.

Thanks everybody

Neil.

Conservancies like this are doing a grand job, in particular in Namibia. Why some people think that fences are "aritficial" is beyond me, but they do. Anmals need protecttion grom their biggest threat HUMANS, freedom to move for most animals is not a high priority unless there is a drastic need for water or fodder.

Great interaction!

Love the leaping show of affection!

Jagdeep Rajput

Hey Ken,

Very cute shot. Hard not to like any shot that shows the strong and affection bond between mother and offspring. Nicely done.

RE: "Why some people think that fences are "aritficial" is beyond me, but they do."

Very puzzling comment Ken. If fences aren't "artificial", I guess that must mean they're natural. Hmmm.

RE: " Anmals need protecttion grom their biggest threat HUMANS, freedom to move for most animals is not a high priority unless there is a drastic need for water or fodder."

Freedom to move is critical for many species of wildlife, commonly to allow dispersal which functions in gene flow and minimizing the deleterious effects of in-breeding. As such, it is a high priority for many species of wildlife, especially large carnivores. As Neil points out, corridors can be effective, but only if they're monitored and strategically placed so that wildlife use them (without increasing their risk of predation). Barring effective corridors the size of the enclosure - and the number of animals it encloses (along with their degree of genetic diversity, which is often unknown) - is critical to its success. No one will disagree that limiting poaching is a critical factor in conserving wildlife, but erecting fences is only one tactic for doing this, and those "natural" fences (how you can say they aren't artificial completely puzzles me) can introduce a host of new problems that negatively impact on the wildlife.

And, of course, those that have the view that fencing is unnatural and enclosing vast areas to protect wildlife reduces it to a large zoo have a right to that view and there is no reason to deride them.

Brad

Thanks for posting this lovely image, Ken. I also like the vertical composition. I guess the youngster must be a male to be as boisterous as it is. I have watched equines for almost all my life and I have seen this behaviour in horse foals occasionally, but you captured it at just the right moment where it looks like the youngster is hugging its mum.

As for it being wild or not, I think everybody has his/her own ideas about that. If Lewa isn't considered to be wild then none of the natural places in The Netherlands would be considered wild, because it always has some fences somewhere.

Betty Lou,

Thanks for your kind comments, I particular enjoyed your comments on fencing, after all wherever you go you will eventually reach a fence, well perhaps not in the Arctic and Antartic regions?

Ken: a wonderfully captured interaction. Richard

Richard,

Thanks very much, I do hope you and others did not find my comments offensive

Ken,

Let it go.

Brad

​Great, endearing moment...love it! 

Grt, Ingrid.​