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In September of 2005 Dr. P joined an Earthwatch group headed by Dr. Bruce Patterson of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. His team helped gather research data on the maneless lions of Tsavo National Park in Kenya. These lions are the descendants of the lions that killed 140 railway workers in Kenya in 1891. Tsavo is a huge National Park in Southeast Kenya made up of two segments, Tsavo East and Tsavo West. Technically, our research poject was located in a private reserve called Taita Ranch located in between the two Tsavo segments. To get to Africa

21 years ago when I first cruised down this river my camera equipment was modest compared to what is available today. I used a Minolta XG-M camera that was manual everything; focus, film advance, and exposure. This camera had slide film at an ASA of 400, which was fast film at that time. It  was small and light and the battery would last for months. At the time I used a 500 mm mirror lens to shoot the proboscis monkeys from a canoe. A mirror lens is a lens with only one f-stop, in this case it was f/8. Why

  The orangutans at the care center range from babies to adults, and are here for a multitude of reasons. Some have chronic disease and will not survive in the wild. Others are young orphans and need a place to call home in the denuded rain forest. Their mothers were killed because they wandered into the wrong area (usually a palm oil plantation), or their mothers were killed because some citizen wanted a baby orangutan in their house (which is illegal). When this baby is discovered (usually a neighbor rats them out) it is confiscated by the authorities and brought

 GRAPHIC PHOTOS IN THIS PAGE They act playful when they are not hunting for their survival In the cool of the early morning, when prey is abundant and within striking distance, Cheetah sometimes do nothing. Only when the sun is higher, and  it is getting so hot that heat waves interfere with photographing them with a telephoto lens, do they streak after their prey. Their excessive panting after a chase are an indication of how winded they are in the mid day heat. This is one of those aspects of cheetah behavior that cannot be explained. Why they pass up opportunities in

This was my fist chance to see a close encounter between lions and hyenas. It happened at 9 Am while driving  in the central Serengeti. A clan of hyena were feasting on the significant remains of a wildebeest The ripped away and engorged themselves They kept a wary eye in the distance, and we soon found out why As it turns out, a small pride of male lions had killed the wildebeest earlier and already feasted. They were lounging about 100 yards away after gorging on the wildebeest. They left their kill to the hyenas since they could not eat