The original intention was to close down the cam sometime in October, or certainly once the summer rains started, but such has been the popularity of the cam that its life has been extended.

For those of you who are not familiar with the WildCam, it's been placed in a "hide" at a small dam called Pete's Pond in the Mashatu Game Reserve in Eastern Botswana.

At this time of year it's very dry in Mashatu, so animals have to rely on any water that's available.

Most of the natural waterholes or streams have dried up, so the pond is one of the few places where the resident wildlife can find water.

This makes for excellent viewing, as a wide variety of animals have been arriving to drink, including elephant, a selection of antelope, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, hyena, warthog, jackals, plus numerous bird species.

I'm finding it specially fascinating as I've visited Pete's Pond and have taken pictures from the hide .....read more. Below are pictures showing the hide and the pond:

Can today's top-of-the-range "point-and-shoot" (ie fixed lens) digital cameras provide a viable alternative to a digital SLR?

That's a question wildlife and nature photographers need to ask themselves.

It's certainly something I've been pondering. I could sell my Canon digital SLR and lenses, buy a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 ($609 from Adorama) and have enough cash left over to take a fantastic photo safari to Tanzania's Serengeti or the Masai Mara in Kenya - places I have always longed to visit but are beyond my budget.

The Lumix DMC-FZ30 is an 8-megapixel camera (same as my Canon EOS 350D) and comes with an image-stabilized 12x zoom (35-420mm equivalent). In addition, this is a Leica lens, with a maximum aperture of F2.8 to F3.7. See pic below:

Does that really mean that at full zoom you're shooting with something akin to a Leica 420mm F3.7 lens? Good question!

So I was fascinated to read an in-depth shoot-out between a Canon EOS-20D and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 (article unfortunately no longer available).

Photo Details:: Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) sitting in tree looking pensive, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli BlocK, Botswana.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter Speed: 1/400; Aperture: f6.3; ISO: 400

Tip for Photographing Monkeys:
A problem when taking pictures of monkeys is the contrast between their light grey bodies and black faces.

Your camera's meter is likely to expose for the grey body, so the small face and dark eyes will be underexposed, showing very little detail.

You can compensate for this by using fill-in flash. This should add some detail to the dark face and also put a highlight or "catchlight" in the eyes, which always increases the sparkle and vitality of animal pictures. The trick is not too add too much flash, which will make the photograph look artificial and possibly "blow out" the hightlights.

Photo Details:: Leopard (Panthera pardus) lying in tree looking directly at the camera, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli BlocK, Botswana.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom; Focal Length: 285mm; Shutter Speed: 1/200; Aperture: f6.3; ISO: 800

Taking Leopard Pictures
Finding a leopard to photograph in the wild is the first hurdle - they're elusive, nocturnal animals, so generally don't lie around in the open during daylight waiting to be photographed.

Once you find a subject, you'll likely face additional problems.

The magnificent male leopard in the picture above was lying full stretch on a thick branch in dappled shade. We spotted him by chance as we slowed to climb a steep bank and happened to look up into the the branches of a tree immediately ahead and to our left.

Although we had a good, relatively unobstructed view, it was nevertheless a challenge taking pictures:

Twenty-one black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) have been released into the Zululand Rhino Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.

The release this month is a further step in the WWF/Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, which aims to boost the numbers of the critically endangered species by increasing the land available for their conservation and providing new territory in which they can breed quickly.

The Zululand Rhino Reserve, covering 24,000ha of savannah, is just such "new territory", where owners of more than 20 neighbouring properties recently removed their internal fences to create a large, barrier-free haven - the ideal breeding ground for the new residents.

“In just two years of this project, the black rhino has acted as a catalyst in creating about 40,000ha of barrier-free land for conservation,” said WWF project leader Dr Jacques Flamand.

Black rhino, which used to be the most numerous rhino species in the world, became critically endangered following a catastrophic poaching wave in the 1970s and 1980s that wiped out 96% of Africa’s wild black rhino population in only 20 years. At the lowest point, there were just 2,500 black rhinos left.

Photo Details: Close-up of the front paw of a female lion (Panthera leo), Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter Speed: 1/500; Aperture: f8; ISO: 400

Photo Details: Banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) out foraging for food, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana. Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom; Focal Length: 330mm; Shutter Speed: 1/400; Aperture: f6.3 ISO: 400.

During the day banded mongooses will head out, usually in a group or pack, to look for their favorite food, mainly beetles, millipedes, crickets and the like.

They forage around in the undergrowth, scratching and turning up litter, leaves and twigs, much like chickens. They poke their noses into any openings and will use their front claws to extract prey from cracks and crevices too narrow for their snouts.

Although they will spread out to some extent when out foraging, they avoid forests or open country and keep in contact with constant chirps and twitters.

If threatened, one of their defensive techniques is a "mob attack" in which they advance in a writhing pack, heads reared, simultaneously growling and snapping. This suggests a single, large and relentless adversary.

In his book, The Behavior Guide to African Mammals, Richard Despard Estes writes:
"The mobbing attacks of banded mongooses are so impressive that even animals as formidable as servals and large dogs may be intimidated, not to mention lesser foes such as jackals, eagles, vultures and herons.