April 6, 2015
Baboon, Wild Dog, and Impala in Kruger National Park, South Africa

I've completed my visit to South Africa and am back in the States after a long 16 hour flight from Johannesburg to Atlanta. Here are three images from my stay in the northern part of Kruger National Park. I enjoy watching and photographing baboons because they're entertaining and almost human. This Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus) was enjoying a late-afternoon snack. I had a nice encounter with pack of four African Wild Dog, African Hunting Dog, or Cape Hunting Dog (Lycaon pictus) one afternoon. They were trotting down the road ahead of me in the same direction that I was going. After following them for a while, I squeezed over to the side of the road and passed them so I could photograph them coming towards me because the south end of a northbound dog isn't very exciting. My favorite image from the last few days in Kruger is of this female Impala (Aepyceros melampus) jumping. There was a large group of them on the other side of the road from some young giraffe that I had stopped to consider photographing. Some of the impala started running around and leaping in a large oval, almost like they were playing follow-the-leader. After several passes, this adult joined them.