February 18, 2017
Caracal, Leopard, and Cheetah from the Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Jan and I have just completed a spectacular photo safari to Tanzania! It was particularly good for cats, and here are just three of the many great images I was able to make.

We started with four nights at Ngorongoro Crater, and we had several good opportunities to photograph lion cubs. My favorite image by far, though, is this one of a Caracal (Caracal caracal) with a young Thomson's Gazelle (Gazella thomsonii). Caracal are extremely rare to see and the opportunity to photograph one while it was eating a baby Tommy was incredible!

Then we spent two nights in the central Serengeti and we had three good photo ops with Leopard (Panthera pardus). This one was watching us from the comfort of a tree branch.

We spent the final seven nights in the Ndutu area of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which abuts the southern border of Serengeti National Park. We photographed some four-week-old lion cubs that were the youngest I've ever photographed! We also photographed a Serval and an African Wild Cat to round out the complete African cat collection. We saw and photographed several Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) including two chases. This image is of a Cheetah mother about to take down a baby Blue Wildebeest or Brindled Gnu (Connochaetes taurinus) while teaching her older cub how to hunt.