Standing Proud

Tall and proud he stands. Bathed in golden light as the sun sinks to the horizon.
He wants a drink, and he will get it, as he doesn't have enemies at this waterhole.

Elephants are special creatures. During my time at a research bunker in Namibia last year, I was fascinated by their various rumblings and communication techniques with the other elephants of the area. There is a recent publication on the National Geographic website where you can listen to some of these rumblings and noises, and see a diagram on how it works and what each sound and gesture signals. Check it out HERE.

Elephants are, however, under threat from daily poaching all over Africa. They are sometimes poached for meat, but mostly it's all about their ivory tusks. Nations around the world are trying to crack down on ivory smuggling rings and are burning their own confiscated ivory stockpiles, while banning local legal trade in ivory. Let's hope all these efforts will help, because an elephant is illegally killed in Africa every 15 minutes! On 4 October 2014 there will be a "Global march for Elephants and Rhinos" - and you can find more info HERE.

I hope you like this image!

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 70mm
f8.0  |  1/400 SS  |  ISO-220

click on the photo to view at optimal sharpness and resolution against a dark background

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Morkel Erasmus

Mother of One

Much has been said about the plight of Southern Africa's black and white rhino population since 2010. I won't rehash it all here. Some days I'm hopeful that a solution will be found, and other days I really fear that it's all going to fade away (rhinos, elephants, lions, all of Africa's natural heritage we hold so dear). There just seems no stopping the greed of man...

I am grateful to have had some opportunities to photograph the critically endangered Black Rhino in recent years. These images might be the only way my children's children get to see these magnificent creatures.

This particular image was taken after sunset at a remote waterhole somewhere between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, a cautious mother and her teeny calf emerged like ghosts from the surrounding bush, making their way gregariously towards the life-giving water. She stopped every now and again to survey the area, take in any new scents, and perk her ears towards unfamiliar sounds. She was keenly aware of her surroundings and of the potential danger that could lurk in the shadows...lions in this area have been known to have a go at rhino calves. The sad part is that we as humans hold the biggest threat to her and her young one's survival...

Eventually, they got to the water, and by that time it was too dark for decent photography - so I put the camera down and just enjoyed watching them drink peacefully as the stars started blinking around us...a special and rare moment in Africa!

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0  |  1/160 SS  |  ISO-2500
Exposure Bias +0.3 

The light was very low, so I opted for a slower shutter speed given the pace that they were moving at. I also utilised my Nikkor lens' Vibration Reduction function for better sharpness.

click on the photo to display at optimal sharpness and resolution

Morkel Erasmus

The Crash

A group of rhino is called a "Crash".

But this title is about more than that.

Rhino numbers are crashing. And crashing terribly fast.

Rhino poaching is on a seemingly unstoppable rise on the back of increased demand for their horns in the East (China, Vietnam, etc), where it's (falsely) believed to have medicinal and healing properties.

Rhinos poached in South Africa by year:

2010: 333

2011: 448

2012: 668

2013: 1004

2014: more than 146 to date...

At the current rate of increase, the death rate will probably overtake the rate of new births sometime during the next year or two, with extinction becoming a reality not long after that.

What can we do to help? Besides funding conservation and anti-poaching efforts, not much. You can do a small part to spread word through social media and help educate end-users that their purchase of rhino horn powder or carvings fuels the death of the species.

First off - sign THIS PETITION. Done? Good, thanks.

The African Wildlife Foundation recently released a new ad campaign featuring Jackie Chan, in both English and Mandarin. Share these videos around on your social networks...

English:

Mandarin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLbLlk3Nsp0

Other useful links:
www.savetherhino.org
www.stoprhinopoaching.com
www.rhinos.org

If you want to contribute R250 (ZAR) to anti-poaching efforts in the South African National Parks, you can buy a raffle ticket from the Table Mountain Honorary Rangers. They are auctioning an A1 print of a rhino photo I donated. Up to now the amount gathered from this auction exceeds R23,000 (about $2200), and there are still 8 weeks or so to go. Contact Diane Brooks (ecomaid@mweb.co.za) or Michael McSweeney (m.mcsweeney@mweb.co.za) for more info and payment details.

I for one hope that my children's children can one day still see rhinos living free in the wild places of Africa. It may be far-fetched, but without a glimmer of hope, where would we find strength to fight this evil scourge??

Morkel Erasmus

World Rhino Day 2013

As is customary, I like to do a short post on 22 September, which has been World Rhino Day for the last few years. As this post goes live, I am on my way to the Masai Mara for a Wild Eye Great Migration photographic safari which I am hosting with Marlon du Toit.

Here's a photo of a Black Rhino I photographed in an undisclosed location. This particular youngster was very agitated and charged everything in sight, even the poor Plover flying in front of him.

click on the photo to display at optimal resolution and sharpness

The various rhino species in the world are under immense pressure due to an increase in wealth in Eastern nations like Thailand, Vietnam and China where the horn is used in traditional medicine and ornaments. The horn has absolutely NO medicinal value or properties!

To find out more about the World Rhino Day initiative, check out their website:
www.worldrhinoday.org

More information on rhino conservation and anti-poaching initiatives:
www.stoprhinopoaching.com
www.savetherhino.org

The latest poaching stats in South Africa, from SANParks:

We can only hope and pray that this magnificent species can one day be seen in the wild by our children and their children. If you know people who are consumers of rhino horn, please try and spread awareness of these issues to them. I doubt many of them know HOW the horn is harvested, and that it's useless for their health.

World Rhino Day 2011

22 September is the official date for "World Rhino Day 2011". On this day, various NGOs and conservation bodies around the world join forces to create a huge surge in public and government awareness of the danger the world's 5 rhino species are in given the catastrophic rise in poaching.

Check out the information page here:
www.rhinoconservation.org/world-rhino-day/

And the Facebook page here:
www.facebook.com/WorldRhinoDay2011

There's not much a mere individual can do - but maybe, just maybe if we all scream loud enough we can get enough government and official buy-in to engage with the Asian nations to where the horn is illegally trafficked and sold on the black market to do something constructive and decisive about it.

I for one don't want my children to have to resort to viewing my photos or going to the zoo in order to see a real live rhino. I want to be able to show them these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat in a wild and free environment.

 

Morkel Erasmus

Petition: Stop Rhino poaching in Africa!

Hi there folks.

This'll be a short post. I was shared this petition by a fellow photographer on Facebook and thought to send it on via my blog too. Many of you might be aware of this issue already, but Rhino poaching has been on a dramatic increase over the last 2 years, especially in my native South Africa.

By June the 3rd 2011, more than 170 rhinos had already been wiped out for their horns, and in the 2010 calendar year the figure amounted to more than 1 per day on average. The ridiculous notion held in the Far East that their horns are worth something medicinally and helpful for sexual arousal is fueling the demand for this "commodity".

Please take a moment to sign this petition HERE, which is due to be sent to high-ranking government officials in Vietnam.

Thanks for your time!


Yours in conservation (in a very small way),
Morkel Erasmus

A dark future??

This blog post has been coming for a while now, since finding out more of the shocking statistics about the increase in Rhino poaching in South Africa and Africa in general of late, and since reading an article by world-famous widllife filmmakers/photographers/conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert about how lions, once thought the least endangered predator in Africa, are now facing extinction in the long run.

Recent blog posts by Shem Compion and Gerry van der Walt (click on their names to go and read their posts) have also served as catalysts for my thoughts in this blog post.

For me, the privilege of being able to capture forever moments of natural history in the wild places of Africa really boils down to leaving a legacy...something tangible that might still be able to be enjoyed long after all that we've seen and all that we've come to love in Africa (and other wonderful locations around the world) has passed away and been replaced by garbage dumps and concrete living quarters. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those "tree-huggers" who will chain themselves to whaling ships or despise all technological advancement (although I do think whaling is disgusting and that some technology cripples us more than it enables us to better conserve our planet)...in fact I do drive an SUV (maybe not as big a gas-guzzler as a Hummvee but one that at least gets me where I need to be in Africa, potholes in the roads being more dangerous than the wildlife these days), and I do live in a bustling town of industry and I do in fact work in a field that creates a bit of pollution. But one thing I know...I love Africa. I love her vibe, her cadence, her charisma, her unbridled energy and most of all, her natural beauty.

I find myself longing for days long gone when explorers such as Livingstone and Hemingway stood atop the kopjes of the African plains, and looking out in all directions all they saw was a mass of animal life as far as the eye could see. Large herds of elephants with tusks thrice as long as a man...buffalo herds that made the great wildebeest migration look like a flea circus...clans of wild dog that roamed vast grasslands and outnumbered even large predators like lions. These men could only but capture their fascination with Africa in their writing, and boy do these tales excite...grand sweeping prose that makes you yearn for times gone by with a thick lump in your throat. These days we have the tools to make those memoirs even more vivid...our cameras. The majesty and elegance and beauty of this continent of ours is now in our hands to portray to all who would perhaps stop by our blogs, read our books or stumble upon our images on a calendar or in a magazine, and if I can evoke those same feelings in at least one other person, I would be ecstatic.

The fact that poaching of rhinos (for the supposed medicinal value of their horns) is rising at an alarming rate all over Africa, and more specifically in the national parks and wildlife reserves of South Africa, has sparked these ideas into another direction. What if the only rhino/cheetah/leopard (fill in the blanks) that my children will ever get to see, are the ones that I have had the privilege of taking photos of during my lifetime??? What if I can never take them to the places I've been and show them the things I've seen, save for showing them a large print of a photo that tries in some meager way to capture the essence of the animal/bird?

This rhino bull was captured in stunning morning sidelight, and I deliberately underexposed with a moody black-and-white photo in mind to convey my concern over this species and others. I hope with all my heart to show this one to my own children one day, and then get into the car, drive to a nearby reserve and show them the real thing...

As Gerry rightly put - we need to take action on a grander scale than merely joining a Facebook group or signing up for a newsletter at Conservation organisation. How and what that involvement will be is up to each of us to determine, decide, and put into action. Until I have the funds to invest in conservation efforts and sponsor large-scale projects, I will continue to try and share the images I have the honour of taking with whoever wants to see. And I do hope we all desire very much to SEE...

Morkel Erasmus