Gabriela Plesea
02-28-2016, 01:20 PM
Hello Friends,
I promised I would show you different species from the Kalahari, so here is a Meerkat (Suricata suricatta). A small carnivore and member of the Mongoose family, this is a predator in its own right even though it is often preyed on by jackals and eagles. Their life span is said to be about twelve years and they make sure to keep safe from predators by taking turns to stand guard while other members of the family ( also called a "mob" or a "gang") forage for scorpions, grubs, beetles or small reptiles.
So here's the story from my diary: Our last day in the Kalahari and we are driving at a slow pace towards the park gates...The time is 11:18 am and the sun is harsh, outside temperature 41'C. But the Meerkat mob does not care about the sun, their dark eye markings are said to act as sunglasses and they are so well adapted to their environment. We notice a few individuals scattered on both sides of the road and quickly grab our cameras to capture a few images...
...I find Meerkats hard to follow... They move constantly, digging fast and then running, changing direction all the time. Difficult to keep focus " on the eye" and also to decide which individual is more interesting to capture, obviously my indecision comes at a high price as I sometimes forget to change settings...
DOF just too short, in fact I had to delete a number of images. Anyway, here is one frame, techs as follows:
Nikon D4
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 1000
F6.3
1/2000s
No support for the camera, shot in hand (I did make sure I had enough SS). Most of the action happened on the LHS of the road, could not turn around because of the trailer behind the vehicle.
PS. Notice the nostrils, almost entirely covered up with caked sand:bg3: These guys sneeze a lot:)
Wishing you all a great week ahead, thank you so much for viewing - much appreciated:)
I promised I would show you different species from the Kalahari, so here is a Meerkat (Suricata suricatta). A small carnivore and member of the Mongoose family, this is a predator in its own right even though it is often preyed on by jackals and eagles. Their life span is said to be about twelve years and they make sure to keep safe from predators by taking turns to stand guard while other members of the family ( also called a "mob" or a "gang") forage for scorpions, grubs, beetles or small reptiles.
So here's the story from my diary: Our last day in the Kalahari and we are driving at a slow pace towards the park gates...The time is 11:18 am and the sun is harsh, outside temperature 41'C. But the Meerkat mob does not care about the sun, their dark eye markings are said to act as sunglasses and they are so well adapted to their environment. We notice a few individuals scattered on both sides of the road and quickly grab our cameras to capture a few images...
...I find Meerkats hard to follow... They move constantly, digging fast and then running, changing direction all the time. Difficult to keep focus " on the eye" and also to decide which individual is more interesting to capture, obviously my indecision comes at a high price as I sometimes forget to change settings...
DOF just too short, in fact I had to delete a number of images. Anyway, here is one frame, techs as follows:
Nikon D4
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 1000
F6.3
1/2000s
No support for the camera, shot in hand (I did make sure I had enough SS). Most of the action happened on the LHS of the road, could not turn around because of the trailer behind the vehicle.
PS. Notice the nostrils, almost entirely covered up with caked sand:bg3: These guys sneeze a lot:)
Wishing you all a great week ahead, thank you so much for viewing - much appreciated:)